Reproducing and Disrupting Phallogocentrism in Computer Coding Languages
Start Date
30-10-2016 8:30 AM
End Date
30-10-2016 10:00 AM
Description
Stemming from the assumption that a computer program’s entire meaning is its function, the coding language used to compose it typically regarded as axiomatic and arhetorical. This approach is potentially problematic because it fails to address the ideological elements that are implicitly conveyed and reproduced through these languages. In this paper, I identify the linguistic elements of coding languages and analyze them through the concept of phallogocentrism in order to argue that through both their social reception and their structure they reproduce Western patriarchal ideas. Then, drawing on feminist and queer theory, I propose various structural, formal, pedagogical, and hermeneutical methods of disrupting this process. By deconstructing the patriarchal aspects of code, I present one method for critiquing and expanding the borders that dictate access to creating, controlling, and communicating with digital technology and gesture toward the possibility of redistributing the power aligned with these abilities.
Type
Presentation
Session
#s4b: Changing Perceptions of Digital Scholarship and Pedagogy, moderator C. Cymone Fourshey
Language
eng
Location
Elaine Langone Center, 241
Reproducing and Disrupting Phallogocentrism in Computer Coding Languages
Elaine Langone Center, 241
Stemming from the assumption that a computer program’s entire meaning is its function, the coding language used to compose it typically regarded as axiomatic and arhetorical. This approach is potentially problematic because it fails to address the ideological elements that are implicitly conveyed and reproduced through these languages. In this paper, I identify the linguistic elements of coding languages and analyze them through the concept of phallogocentrism in order to argue that through both their social reception and their structure they reproduce Western patriarchal ideas. Then, drawing on feminist and queer theory, I propose various structural, formal, pedagogical, and hermeneutical methods of disrupting this process. By deconstructing the patriarchal aspects of code, I present one method for critiquing and expanding the borders that dictate access to creating, controlling, and communicating with digital technology and gesture toward the possibility of redistributing the power aligned with these abilities.