Yvonne Houy,(German Studies, Cornell University)
The history of the disposable sanitary napkin has been a silent, but crucial, component in the development of "modern women" as an identity category available to women in the industrialized world. I will discuss how modern visual culture constructs identity categories through technologies. By analyzing slides of advertisements for Camelia, a brand of disposable sanitary napkins popular in Germany from the 1920s to the present, I examine how the representations of feminine technologies participated in the social construction of the "modern woman" from the late 1920s to the early 1940s.
After World War I, urban women who embraced modern lifestyles constructed their identity through clothing. The new female fashions which emerged after the war--short skirts and short hair--seemed to indicate changes within the "modern women" who wore them. Camelia promoters seized on the perception that particular clothing defined women as modern and argued in its advertisements that women wishing to be "modern" needed to be modern in what they wore during menstruation as well. These advertisements went through three distinct stages: telling women that to be modern meant using disposable sanitary napkins (1920s); engaging women in a staged conversation about whether modern women should wear disposable hygienic products (early 1930s); and assuming that women who participated in a modern life style wore Camelia (late 1930s). Shifts in advertising strategies suggest that Camelia participated in a dynamic interchange with its target audience until it found the visual language which produced acceptance of its product.
This case study shows how visual culture is a crucial component in the intersection of technology and identity. The acceptance of particular technologies is dependent on how a technology is socially constructed through visual means; in turn, these visual means are dependent on the (self-)construction of the identity of a technology's likely users.
Andrew Garnar,(S&TS, Virginia Tech.)
It is commonly acknowledged that our automobiles are extensions of our
identities, but how this happens is rarely explored. This paper will
demonstrate the value of using C. S. Peirce's theory of signs to understand
the connections between identity and technologies. To illustrate this
semiotic approach, I analyze how identities are constructed around
sport/utility vehicles. The first task is to outline this semiotic
framework. Identity is reinterpreted as an assemblage of signs. I also
argue for a similar, semiotic interpretation of the sport/utility vehicle.
The next task involves tracing out the connections between these two
systems of signs. This requires a brief history of sport/utility vehicles
and their owners from 1946 to the present. The sport/utility vehicles and
owners from before the '80s and '90s are very different from the majority
of sport/utility vehicles and present owners. These differences are used
to demonstrate the ways in which identity is constructed around these
vehicles, though the focus will mainly be on the present ownership of
sport/utility vehicles. By following automotive magazine articles and
advertisements about sport/utility vehicles some of the signs associated
with this class of vehicles become apparent. It is then explained how
these advertising signs become attached to the sport/utility vehicle and
transform the meaning of the vehicle. The final step is showing the
mechanisms involved with using the sport/utility vehicle to transform the
owner's identity. Consideration is also given to the socio-economic
location of the owners, since this context influences the meaning of the
sport/utility vehicle. I conclude by comparing this semiotic account of
technology/identity relations to others like Latour and Haraway.
Christina Lindsay,(S&TS, Cornell University)
Users are now appearing in accounts of S&TS research, from bicyclists and users of cars to those who zap food in the microwave. What these accounts have in common is a movement beyond "the user" to a recognition of multiple, heterogeneous groups of "users" who can, and do, shape technology through their interactions with, and transformations of, it.
However, I claim that this is not enough. Another important "relevant social group" should be considered -- that of "constructed users." These are virtual, somewhat ideal, and probably mythical people for whom a technology is designed and to whom it is promoted. These imaginary users are constructed by the designers, developers, advertisers, and promoters of the technology in lieu of and even alongside knowing who the actual users are. These groups negotiate the identities of the constructed users, and these virtual identities have a significant role in the design and use of a technology. In turn, actual users may develop their own identities in relation to that of the constructed users.
The history of the TRS-80 computer provides an interesting site for studying the negotiation of the identities of the constructed user over time, and of the relationships between the constructed users and the actual users. Introduced in 1977 as one of the first personal computers for those that could build their own machines, the TRS-80 had effectively disappeared from mainstream personal computing by 1985. However, today, this computer is still being used by some. The producers, advertisers and promoters have long since gone from the picture, leaving behind some users and the artifacts of the TRS-80 itself to construct their own identities, twenty years on. This paper discusses the creation of the identities of the constructed users of this technology in these two time slices, though by its exploratory nature it raises more questions than it answers.
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Last Update: February 18, 1999
"The Modern Woman and Her Sanitary napkin: The Social Construction of Women Through Feminine Technologies" (in the late 20s-early 40s Germany)
"Sport/Utility Vehicles and Identity: A Semiotic Perspective" (in the last few decades)
"Invisible Computers and Constructed Users: The TRS-80 Computer 20 Years On"