Rhetoric & Technical Communication
Rhetoric & Technical Communication
Toscano, Aaron, Ph.D., Associate Professor, Dept. of English

Resources and Daily Activities

  • Conference Presentations
    • PCA/ACA Conference Presentation 2022
    • PCAS/ACAS Presentation 2021
    • SEACS 2021 Presentation
    • South Atlantic MLA Conference 2022
  • Dr. Toscano’s Homepage
  • ENGL 2116-014: Introduction to Technical Communication
    • January 11th: More Introduction to Class
    • January 18th: Audience & Purpose
    • January 23rd: Résumés and Cover Letters
      • Duty Format for Résumés
      • Peter Profit’s Cover Letter
    • January 25th: More on Résumés and Cover Letters
    • January 9th: Introduction to the Class
    • Major Assignments
  • ENGL 4182/5182: Information Design & Digital Publishing
    • August 21st: Introduction to the Course
      • Rhetorical Principles of Information Design
    • August 28th: Introduction to Information Design
      • Prejudice and Rhetoric
      • Robin Williams’s Principles of Design
    • Classmates Webpages (Fall 2017)
    • December 4th: Presentations
    • Major Assignments for ENGL 4182/5182 (Fall 2017)
    • November 13th: More on Color
      • Designing with Color
      • Important Images
    • November 20th: Extra-Textual Elements
    • November 27th: Presentation/Portfolio Workshop
    • November 6th: In Living Color
    • October 16th: Type Fever
      • Typography
    • October 23rd: More on Type
    • October 2nd: MIDTERM FUN!!!
    • October 30th: Working with Graphics
      • Beerknurd Calendar 2018
    • September 11th: Talking about Design without Using “Thingy”
      • Theory, theory, practice
    • September 18th: The Whole Document
    • September 25th: Page Design
  • ENGL 4183/5183: Editing with Digital Technologies
    • August 24th: Introduction to the Class
    • August 31st: Rhetoric, Words, and Composing
    • Major Assignments for ENGL 4183/5183 (Fall 2022)
      • Rhetoric of Fear
    • November 16th: Voice and Other Nebulous Writing Terms
      • Finding Dominant Rhetorical Appeals
    • November 2nd: Rhetorical Effects of Punctuation
    • November 30th: Words and Word Classes
    • November 9th: Cohesive Rhythm
    • October 12th: Choosing Adjectivals
    • October 19th: Choosing Nominals
    • October 26th: Stylistic Variations
    • October 5th: Midterm Exam
    • September 14th: Verb is the Word!
    • September 21st: Coordination and Subordination
    • September 28th: Form and Function
    • September 7th: Sentence Patterns
  • ENGL 4275: Rhetoric of Technology
    • April 13th: Authorities in Science and Technology
    • April 15th: Articles on Violence in Video Games
    • April 20th: Presentations
    • April 6th: Technology in the home
    • April 8th: Writing Discussion
    • Assignments for ENGL 4275
    • February 10th: Religion of Technology Part 3 of 3
    • February 12th: Is Love a Technology?
    • February 17th: Technology and Gender
    • February 19th: Technology and Expediency
    • February 24th: Semester Review
    • February 3rd: Religion of Technology Part 1 of 3
    • February 5th: Religion of Technology Part 2 of 3
    • January 13th: Technology and Meaning, a Humanist perspective
    • January 15th: Technology and Democracy
    • January 22nd: The Politics of Technology
    • January 27th: Discussion on Writing as Thinking
    • January 29th: Technology and Postmodernism
    • January 8th: Introduction to the Course
    • March 11th: Writing and Other Fun
    • March 16th: Neuromancer (1984) Day 1 of 2
    • March 18th: Neuromancer (1984) Day 2 of 2
    • March 23rd: Inception (2010)
    • March 25th: Writing and Reflecting Discussion
    • March 30th & April 1st: Count Zero
    • March 9th: William Gibson’s Neuromancer (1984)
  • ENGL 6166: Rhetorical Theory
    • April 12th: Knoblauch. Ch. 4 and Ch. 5
    • April 19th: Jacques Derrida’s Positions
    • April 26th:  Feminisms and Rhetorics
    • April 5th: Knoblauch. Ch. 3 and More Constitutive Rhetoric
    • February 15th: Isocrates (Part 2)
    • February 1st: Aristotle’s On Rhetoric Books 2 & 3
      • Aristotle’s On Rhetoric, Book 2
      • Aristotle’s On Rhetoric, Book 3
    • February 22nd: St. Augustine’s On Christian Doctrine [Rhetoric]
    • February 8th: Isocrates (Part 1)-2nd Half of Class
    • January 11th: Introduction to Class
    • January 18th: Plato’s Phaedrus
    • January 25th: Aristotle’s On Rhetoric Book 1
    • March 15th: Descartes, Rene, Discourse on Method
    • March 1st: Knoblauch. Ch. 1 and 2
    • March 22nd: Mary Wollstonecraft
    • March 29th: Second Wave Feminist Rhetoric
    • May 3rd: Knoblauch. Ch. 6, 7, and “Afterword”
    • Rhetorical Theory Assignments
  • ENGL/COMM/WRDS: The Rhetoric of Fear
    • January 10th: Introduction to the Class
    • January 17th: Scapegoats & Conspiracies
    • January 24th: The Rhetoric of Fear and Fallacies Part 1
    • Major Assignments
  • LBST 2212-124, 125, 126, & 127
    • August 21st: Introduction to Class
    • August 23rd: Humanistic Approach to Science Fiction
    • August 26th: Robots and Zombies
    • August 28th: Futurism, an Introduction
    • August 30th: R. A. Lafferty “Slow Tuesday Night” (1965)
    • December 2nd: Technological Augmentation
    • December 4th: Posthumanism
    • November 11th: Salt Fish Girl (Week 2)
    • November 13th: Salt Fish Girl (Week 2 con’t)
    • November 18th: The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (Part 1)
      • More Questions than Answers
    • November 1st: Games Reality Plays (part II)
    • November 20th: The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (Part 2)
    • November 6th: Salt Fish Girl (Week 1)
    • October 14th: More Autonomous Fun
    • October 16th: Autonomous Conclusion
    • October 21st: Sci Fi in the Domestic Sphere
    • October 23rd: Social Aphasia
    • October 25th: Dust in the Wind
    • October 28th: Gender Liminality and Roles
    • October 2nd: Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein
    • October 30th: Games Reality Plays (part I)
    • October 9th: Approaching Autonomous
      • Analyzing Prose in Autonomous
    • September 11th: The Time Machine
    • September 16th: The Alien Other
    • September 18th: Post-apocalyptic Worlds
    • September 20th: Dystopian Visions
    • September 23rd: World’s Beyond
    • September 25th: Gender Studies and Science Fiction
    • September 30th: Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein
    • September 4th: Science Fiction and Social Breakdown
      • More on Ellison
      • More on Forster
    • September 9th: The Time Machine
  • LBST 2213-110: Science, Technology, and Society
    • August 22nd: Science and Technology from a Humanistic Perspective
    • August 24th: Science and Technology, a Humanistic Approach
    • August 29th: Collins & Pinch’s The Golem (Science), Ch. 2
    • August 31st: Collins & Pinch’s The Golem (Science), Ch. 3 and 4
    • December 5th: Video Games and Violence, a more nuanced view
    • November 14th: Boulle, Pierre. Planet of the Apes. (1964) Ch. 27-end
    • November 16th: Shelley, Mary. Frankenstein. 1818. Preface-Ch. 8
    • November 21st: Shelley, Mary. Frankenstein. 1818. Ch. 9-Ch. 16
    • November 28th: Shelley, Mary. Frankenstein. Ch. 17-Ch. 24
    • November 30th: Violence in Video Games
    • November 7th: Boulle, Pierre. Planet of the Apes Ch. 1-17
    • November 9th: Boulle, Pierre. Planet of the Apes, Ch. 18-26
    • October 12th: Lies Economics Tells
    • October 17th: Brief Histories of Medicine, Salerno, and Galen
    • October 19th: Politicizing Science and Medicine
    • October 24th: COVID-19 Facial Covering Rhetoric
    • October 26th: Wells, H. G. Time Machine. Ch. 1-5
    • October 31st: Wells, H. G. The Time Machine Ch. 6-The End
    • October 3rd: Collins & Pinch’s The Golem at Large (Technology), Ch. 7 and Conclusion
    • September 12th: Collins & Pinch’s The Golem (Science), Ch. 7 and Conclusion
    • September 19th: Collins & Pinch’s The Golem at Large (Technology), Prefaces and Ch. 1
    • September 26th: Collins & Pinch’s The Golem at Large (Technology), Ch. 2
    • September 28th: Collins & Pinch’s The Golem at Large (Technology), Ch. 5 and 6
    • September 7th: Collins & Pinch’s The Golem (Science), Ch. 5 and 6
  • New Media: Gender, Culture, Technology (Spring 2021)
    • April 13th: Virtually ‘Real’ Environments
    • April 20th: Rhetoric/Composition Defines New Media
    • April 27th: Sub/Cultural Politics, Hegemony, and Agency
    • April 6th: Capitalist Realism
    • February 16: Misunderstanding the Internet
    • February 23rd: Our Public Sphere and the Media
    • February 2nd: Introduction to Cultural Studies
    • January 26th: Introduction to New Media
    • Major Assignments for New Media (Spring 2021)
    • March 16th: Identity Politics
    • March 23rd: Social Construction of Gender and Sexuality
    • March 2nd: Foundational Thinkers in Cultural Studies
    • March 30th: Hyperreality
    • March 9th: Globalization & Postmodernism
    • May 4th: Wrapping Up The Semester
      • Jodi Dean “The The Illusion of Democracy” & “Communicative Capitalism”
      • Social Construction of Sexuality
  • Science Fiction in American Culture (Summer I–2020)
    • Assignments for Science Fiction in American Culture
    • Cultural Studies and Science Fiction Films
    • June 10th: Interstellar and Exploration themes
    • June 11th: Bicentennial Man
    • June 15th: I’m Only Human…Or am I?
    • June 16th: Wall-E and Environment
    • June 17th: Wall-E (2008) and Technology
    • June 18th: Interactivity in Video Games
    • June 1st: Firefly (2002) and Myth
    • June 2nd: “Johnny Mnemonic”
    • June 3rd: “New Rose Hotel”
    • June 4th: “Burning Chrome”
    • June 8th: Conformity and Monotony
    • June 9th: Cultural Constructions of Beauty
    • May 18th: Introduction to Class
    • May 19th: American Culture, an Introduction
    • May 20th: The Matrix
    • May 21st: Gender and Science Fiction
    • May 25th: Goals for I, Robot
    • May 26th: Isaac Asimov’s I, Robot
    • May 27th: Hackers and Slackers
    • May 30th: Inception
  • Teaching Portfolio
  • Topics for Analysis
    • A Practical Editing Situation
    • American Culture, an Introduction
    • Efficiency in Writing Reviews
    • Feminism, An Introduction
    • Fordism/Taylorism
    • Frankenstein Part I
    • Frankenstein Part II
    • Futurism Introduction
    • Isaac Asimov’s “A Cult of Ignorance”
    • Langdon Winner Summary: The Politics of Technology
    • Marxist Theory (cultural analysis)
    • Oral Presentations
    • Oratory and Argument Analysis
    • Our Public Sphere
    • Postmodernism Introduction
    • Protesting Confederate Place
    • Punctuation Refresher
    • QT, the Existential Robot
    • Religion of Technology Discussion
    • Rhetoric, an Introduction
      • Analyzing the Culture of Technical Writer Ads
      • Rhetoric of Technology
      • Visual Culture
      • Visual Perception
      • Visual Perception, Culture, and Rhetoric
      • Visual Rhetoric
      • Visuals for Technical Communication
      • World War I Propaganda
    • The Great I, Robot Discussion
      • I, Robot Short Essay Topics
    • The Rhetoric of Video Games: A Cultural Perspective
      • Civilization, an Analysis
    • The Sopranos
    • Why Science Fiction?
    • Zombies and Consumption Satire
  • Video Games & American Culture
    • April 14th: Phallocentrism
    • April 21st: Video Games and Neoliberalism
    • April 7th: Video Games and Conquest
    • Assignments for Video Games & American Culture
    • February 10th: Aesthetics and Culture
    • February 17th: Narrative and Catharsis
    • February 24th: Serious Games
    • February 3rd: More History of Video Games
    • January 13th: Introduction to the course
    • January 20th: Introduction to Video Game Studies
    • January 27th: Games & Culture
      • Marxism for Video Game Analysis
      • Postmodernism for Video Game Analysis
    • March 24th: Realism, Interpretation(s), and Meaning Making
    • March 31st: Feminist Perspectives and Politics
    • March 3rd: Risky Business?

Contact Me

Office: Fretwell 255F
Email: atoscano@uncc.edu
ENGL 4275: Rhetoric of Technology » February 17th: Technology and Gender

February 17th: Technology and Gender

Plan for the Day

  • Syllabus Updates
  • Online Presence Reflections
  • Online Presence Reflections
  • Online Presence Reflections
  • Online Presence Reflections
  • Online Presence Reflections
  • Online Presence Reflections
  • Online Presence Reflections
  • Finish up David Noble’s The Religion of Technology (Appendix)
  • Whig History
  • Preview your next essay: Social Construction of Technology Essays
  • Rachel N. Weber’s “Manufacturing Gender…”
  • “Technology and Yourself” Essay revisions Due Next Class–2/19

David Noble’s The Religion of Technology

Well, that was quite a snow storm, but now we’re back in action and need to catch up. Of course, I know you kept up with your reading and followed along with the syllabus and course Web pages because, after all, you’re college students, so you know to keep up without needing hand holding.

Let’s go back to Noble’s special page and finish discussing the masculine issues related to technology and, specifically, the Religion of Technology as masculine endeavor.

Is Love a Technology? (time permitting)

Head back to 2/12’s page on love and stuff. Let me briefly point out some important “science” in the article and show how the article reports on an academic research.

What’s lost and/or gained when a topic originally aimed at one audience is filtered for another audience? Does the title capture the substance of the article?

Social Construction of Technology Essays

Let’s preview your next essay, which is due You should have been thinking about this for a while. After all, it’s been on the Assignments page all semester: Social Construction of Technology Essays. Before we even look at the guidelines, I want to stress that this essay asks you to think of a social value or cultural belief (or condition) that appears to drive the production and/or use of a technology. It isn’t predominantly about a technology–it’s about showing how a technology can tell us about the culture from which it comes.

Rachel N. Weber’s “Manufacturing Gender in Military Cockpit Design”

Before we get into this, I need to make a disclaimer and focus our attention to more productive places. This reading (and the others) aren’t supposed to make you experts for or provide technical details on specific technologies. The readings try to help you understand the rhetoric of technology by demonstrating the how/why/when/where/who surrounding technology. Even if some technologies seem out of date, the readings still have value for two reasons: 1) the critical distance historical analysis allows and 2) analyzing the discourse and culture surrounding the technology. We’re more concerned with analyzing the cultural reasons, a story for why a technology came to be as opposed to trying to assess whether or not a technology was the “best” option. These historical analyses should help you (re)think about contemporary technologies. Your own analyses will be influenced by what others say about technologies because that discourse is loaded with cultural values. Remember, we use read technologies to discover something about our culture.

This article raises an important discussion about technological determinism. There’s a self-fulfilling prophecy if one argues that women can’t be pilots because they don’t fit into the cockpits. Well, if the cockpits are created for men…

  • Traditional feminist view is military weapons are the extension of the phallus (p. 373).
    • “‘inherent’ masculinity of such [military] technologies is socially constructed” (p. 373).
    • What are some commercial, non-military technologies that you can think of that have design bias against other body types?
    • Giant Head and coach seats…
  • Ergonomics and Anthropometrics: guidelines for designing equipment (p. 374).
  • “Design bias has far-reaching implications for gender equity in the military” (p. 375)
  • Cockpit designs protect traditionally male occupations (p. 375).

Relevant Social Groups

I want to look at the following passage for two reasons: 1) it’s relevant to Weber’s article and the rhetoric of technology in general, and 2) it demonstrates how to synthesize quotations, which is something you need to work on for your Technology and Yourself Essay revisions…

  • From Marconi’s Wireless and the Rhetoric of a New Technology (Toscano 2012, p. 36):

    No matter how well an invention works, it must also adhere to larger cultural values. Relevant social groups immersed in a particular culture affix meaning to inventions, thus, building technological frames. Bijker (1995) explains that “[a] technological frame is built up when interaction ‘around’ an artifact begins”; therefore, if a frame is not built up in order to “move members of an emerging relevant social group in the same direction,” a technology will fail (p. 123). Before users will accept a technology, they must believe the product adheres to social values. These values give meaning to a technological frame. Bijker observes that “[a] technological frame comprises all elements that influence the interactions within relevant social groups and lead to the attribution of meanings to technical artifacts—and thus to constituting technology” (p. 123). Therefore, these frames can be understood as sets of meaning(s) groups affix to technology.
  • “The process of design accommodation in the military became a process of negotiation between various social groups who held different stakes in and interpretations of the technology in question” (paraphrasing Pinch and Bijker, 1984).
    • So what does this mean for Weber’s analysis? This reading (and Fallows) are about the relevant social groups within the military who affix meaning and push for particular technological developments. Technologies don’t just come to be because they are the best–they are made to fit the values of a particular culture (big and small cultures).
  • Les Aspin’s directive to include more women in combat (p. 376).
    • “negotiations over accommodation arose as a result of changes made in policies regarding women in combat” (p. 376).
    • New JPATS sitting height threshold to reach 80% of eligible women (p. 376).
  • Pragmatists note that design changes could mean more foreign sales (p. 377). $$$$$ = motivation

Framing the Discussion/Setting the Rules

  • Changing the “debate” from accommodating women to accommodating all service members (top of p. 378).
    • Notice that Weber’s argument is that change happened, in part, because of rhetoric: The major strategy wasn’t to claim the changes were for expanding women’s opportunities but for expanding opportunities for more military personnel.
  • The perspective of female officers seeing a demand of special rights from women in the military (p. 378).
  • Winning aircraft contracts linked to crew accommodations: This policy decision drives what features and to what specifications new technologies (aircraft) will be designed–politics of technology (p. 379).
  • Tailhook scandal and Anita Hill–early 1990s and sexual harassment awareness.

Questions for this article:

  • What’s feminism got to do with manly stuff like science and technology?
  • What’s the goal of this article?
  • What happens when spaces have to be designed?
  • Is it fair to say the military was sexist because of its “typical” or assumed pilot size?
  • Cause and effect. Could it be that gender exclusion led to the androcentric (male oriented) design? In other words, what comes first: sexism or sexist products?

Next Class

Your “Technology and Yourself” Essay revisions are due next class–2/19.

Keep up with your reading. We’ll discuss James Fallows’s “The American Army and the M-16 Rifle” on Wednesday, 2/19. Don’t forget to review the revised syllabus dates. Also, YOU MUST DO THE ONLINE PRESENCE REFLECTION POSTS BEFORE FRIDAY, 2/20, @ 11:00 PM.

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