Poster, Winifred, Post Doc

By Malena Gustavson on 11 Dec | 0 comments

Winifred Poster, Women, Gender & Sexuality Studies, Washington University, St Louis, USA

My project raises questions about trends in the information society and their implications for forms and relations of masculinity on a global scale.  Is technology related to masculinity in the same way worldwide?  If certain masculinities are globally hegemonic, what is the “face” of this male power?  Is information technology changing the relations among masculinities, and perhaps destabilizing hegemonic masculinities, or reproducing them in new forms?

I focus on India and the U.S. to explore how “techno-masculinities” are under contestation in the contemporary global economy.  While not a uniform or comprehensive identity, “techno-masculinity” is unique from other types of masculinities in that it carries a common set of narratives for understanding manhood, such as displays of technical expertise, creativity, and a love of tinkering; it emerges from sources of power in technical tools, computers, and information; and it operates in realms of communication and information economies, such as the internet. 

The information society transforms masculinity on a transnational scale through two key dynamics – the development of information as a commodity, and the development of high-tech virtual communication.  In my project, I show how these have become platforms for empowering of techno-masculinities in the Global South, like India, relative to those in the Global North.

I would like to argue, first, that this technomasculinity is increasing in its presence globally. Economies of information are the most rapidly expanding sectors, and most new jobs in many countries are in the fields of ICTs.  This is due to several forces, which I’ll talk about in more detail tomorrow. Second, the dynamics and pattern of technomasculinity – especially as they now operate on a transnational scale -- do not conform to traditional theories of hegemonic masculinity 

If technology is associated with being a “nerd” and a social outcast in the US, or at best the underdog, this is the not the case at all india.  Not only is the male engineer the hero in India, he is the symbol of success, promise, and social mobility.  Techno-masculinity in these contexts also has different relations to women and femininity.  In the U.S., technology is unambiguously masculine; women are seen as secondary or peripheral to the technology.  However, in India, technology is not exclusively male.  There is a dominant techno-masculinity, no doubt, but technology in general (and especially compared to the US) is less embedded exclusively in either gender, and therefore is more accepted to be embraced by both.

We need to unpack exactly who is holding power, and how is it being challenged in the contemporary information economy. “Hegemonic masculinity” is often assumed to be white, and rooted in the West – U.S., Europe, etc.  I want to bring this assumption to the surface, and ask exactly how it operates.  While there is certainly a “Eurocentric” foundation for the construction of transnational masculinities and their institutionalization in the information economy, this is also being challenged, eroded, and subverted in key ways by actors in the Global South.