Sex/Machine: Readings in Culture, Gender, and Technology

Hopkins asks some of the most important questions that we, as a culture, are currently facing. The social and ethical issues related to technology and gender need our attention, and this collection is the only book on this topic I have been able to find. I highly recommend it!

Sex/Machine is by far the best single source concerning gender and technology. This book collects the most stimulating and important essays in this area, and unlike many edited volumes, contains an introductory essay which is by itself worth the price of the book because of the insights it brings to these issues. Elegantly crossing multiple academic disciplines--from philosophy of technology, to medical ethics, to womens studies, gender theory and cultural studies, to law (among others), Patrick Hopkins has assembled a collection of the most provocative writing concerning the interactions between technologies and genders. The essays in this edited volume explore the history of technologies and gender, and how technology can shore up traditional and problematic gender roles (e.g., pectoral implants to make men appear more "macho", and technologies that make it possible for parents to know, and potentially select, the sex of their children before they are born). More interesting to me, though, are the selections that explore ways technologies undermine traditional ideas of gender. The sections I found most thought-provoking were the essays in Part IV on the issues (among others) concerning transsexuals and medical technology, in Part V on computers and cyberspace/cybersex, and in Part IV on cyborgs--bodies such as that of the Borg on Star Trek that are such interminglings of so-called "hardware" (machine) and "wetware" (biology) that gender no longer has any meaning. I'm going to use this book in a course in gay and lesbian history and philosophy, but I could see it being used in courses in medical ethics, philosophy of technology, womens studies, and gender and cultural studies. Perhaps the best feature of this book is that it is extremely readable--in addition to classrooms, it will make great reading for a book club, or for anyone interested in sex, gender, and technology.