Blog Post #11: Semester Overview

In all honesty, as only 1/4 of the title of the class, I didn’t realize how relevant feminism would be in the class curriculum when I had originally signed up for the class… Not that I regret it at all. Also truthfully, I had never previously strongly associated myself with the advocacy. Even though I would’ve never disagreed that women could never have too many rights, I had never actively participated in the “feminist front” either. My lack of concern for the topic rendered it a very distant topic before this class. Though I didn’t believe in the horribly negative feminist stereotype, I had no other substantial knowledge on the topic, so it was all that I knew of “feminism”. The first time the gravity of feminism hit me was when Alex Juhasz & Carol Stabile visited our class. Their references to feminism and feminist ideas from an academic point of view got through to me. People not only practice feminism but “Women’s Studies” is very much a very valid sector in the academic world. People fight for and write for academic journals about feminism. This was a revelation that I am very grateful for having had.

Even deeper in my initial ignorance on the topic, I had no clue how influential technology was to feminism even though that was another quarter of the class title. Especially after hearing about Juhasz and Stabile’s experiences with feminist blogging and online activism, it occurred to me how the two are much more hand-in-hand than I had first perceived. This is why our discussion on the access & inequality of technology with our fellow class in the College of New Jersey was crucial to me. In fact, after discussing the importance of technology in human growth, I went home and took to the internet (of course) on the topic. I found a very interesting TedTalk by an Indian man about sanitary menstrual practices. He talked about how he was astounded by the unsanitary practices of the women of his area and time (mindset) in concerns to menstruation. He was even more shocked when he dared asked why there were only such inadequate practices and tried to improve the situation… only to be met with criticism. It was an “offensively” taboo topic, especially for a man. Unfortunately, as a man, he was much more capable of righting the situation than a woman, who wouldn’t have the resources. So, this man made it his mission to bring modern “Western” sanitary napkins and sanitary napkin-making technology to the women of his area (as well as women in similar situations). Though this is definitely not the first example that comes to mind when thinking of technology and women’s rights, it definitely is an example of how insufficient access and inequality in regards to technology effects women’s living conditions.

I’m so glad that we had the extra credit opportunity to hear Stefanie Wuschitz talk about feminist hackerspaces because I really think it solidifies the important “Culture” quarter of our class title. I appreciated her thoughts on how the “unwelcoming” atmosphere found in a lot of the cyberspace translates into the general technology-world. For example, she recognized that the vastly tipped gender ration online is a reflection of how our culture approaches technology from a gender standpoint in real life. Such as how she identified cyberspace as a culture in itself that needed to reprogram itself with a new structure. I find it wonderful that she drew inspiration from a real-life Sumatran matriarchal tribe to base-off her new space-based community- a welcoming space that embraces one and all with open arms the moment the individual enters the space. How much more tolerant and accepting can a community be? She even determined a code of ethics for her hackerspace like an actual culture. Even more so, I love that when someone in the crowd shared her horrible experience in a graduate computer-science environment filled with males- how every conversation was impenetrable because they were such irrelevant topics to her, how they often went out without her on “guys” nights and how when she confronted them about it, they told her to try changing her ways to fit in- that Wuschitz’ first response was to applaud her for dealing with such prejudice and unfair treatment with the most genuine and sympathetic smiles I have ever seen.

Lastly, as a pretty verbose person myself, I thoroughly enjoyed hearing Arzu Ozkal and Claudia Pederson discuss their revamped Güns based off of Turkish culture. It was bittersweet that the class starts with “Dialogues…” and we ended just that topic. From inviting dozens of women to talk about their concerns on such a grand platform as ISEA, to the published account of their transcribed thoughts it really was a celebration of an age-old feminine exchange. It was wonderful to learn about such collaboration and appreciation amongst women- a total encouragement to hear the voices of women.

 

Blog Post #3: Creativity

As a 100% art-oriented person, I can’t stress enough the importance of creativity. Whether it be manufacturing with innovation or innovative conceptualization, I have always felt that any human advancement takes root in innovation… which wouldn’t exist without creativity. Creativity involves elements of what hasn’t been fully developed or doesn’t exist already. Therefore, creativity would only benefit growth. In fact, I wouldn’t hesitate to say that academic and artistic creativity have sculpted the world that we have now.

Not only would I like to stress the importance of it, I would like to highlight how extremely undiscovered and underappreciated creativity is. Creativity is grand as a Broadway production (all the way from the musical composition to the costume and set design). Creativity is finding a new shortcut on the way to your favorite restaurant because there’s always more than one way to do anything. Creativity is finding a new studying habit that is better attuned to the way your brain consumes information. Creativity is using chalk and Kool-aid to dye your hair when you want a spontaneous change in your appearance. These aren’t the obvious examples of creativity, but they are still creativity no-less.

In my life, I feel like creativity has always been a driving force. I however, more often than not like to express a literal artistic creativity on a day-to-day basis. My attention span has always been drawn to visual stimuli so almost everything I do or create is very similar in that sense. My notes always need to have some format element, color code or endless doodles in the margin. I live for visual projects that I can focus on how I present the project as much as the data itself- or for the most part, any opportunity to express my creativity. In fact, whenever someone asks me how some of the more random guests that we have had for the Penny W. Stamps Lecture series have any relevance to art school, to me, the answer is simple. They are all in their own right, innovators and from an artists’ point of view, I think there is a lot to be said about and learned from that.

Though many people might think that the Internet, video games, social media and other types of digital technologies might “rot” away a young mind… I think its quite the opposite. Technology has presented so many new platforms for us to discover, explore and express our creativity. With Tumblr, Pinterest, Deviantart and more, people can express themselves in ways that other ways wouldn’t be possible. Youtube is a great example of unconventional creativity. There are many people who have individually obtained millions of subscribers just because they have the creative vigor to produce videos with entertaining content. Even the way a video is edited can be a form of creativity and definitely effects how content can appeal to others.

My mother has always been a creative women but never really had an outlet to express herself. She used to work on behind-the-scenes creative process to advertising rather than actually executing the visuals to the advertisements- however she always wanted to get her hand dirty on the other side too. 8 years ago, my mom took up photography and photo editing. As a former 9-to-5 job woman but current stay-at-home mom, she had to find a way to occupy her time and use her creativity. Now, she has invested in professional-grade photography equipment, is well-recommended as a photographer among her friends and has over 50 portraiture/landscape (from travel journals to weddings) photoshoots under her belt. I definitely feel like she’s the posterchild of the positive creative influences of technology can bring us.

Blog Post #7: SubRosa’s Research

I read Carol Hanish’ paper “The Personal is Political” and Bruce E Levine’s “8 Reasons Young American’s Don’t Fight Back: How The US Crushed The Youth”. Something that I really appreciated about Hanish’s paper is how it portrays a very geniune and logical approach to feminist activism. A common critique of feminism that I hear is that “they don’t know what they really want”, “these women are just trying to get attention” and that “they’re just trying to oppress men or anyone that gets in their way”. I definitely noticed how understanding Hanish was of people that believe in feminism but don’t act on their beliefs really struck a chord with me. I always felt conflicted when it came my position on human rights activism. I believe in the cause, but I hardly have ever truly done anything about it or made a true difference so do I have the right to call myself an activist? Yet she states multiple valid reasons for holding your tongue or your lending hand. For one, Hanish feels that many people should have the right to hesitate for the sake of legitimizing their facts and motivations for participating. She discourages activism for the sake of activism- doing something because you feel like you should. This community pressure is one of the few community issues she discusses. Though her main point about how the personal becomes political-when a substantial sum of individual beliefs becomes a relevant community issue- her point about legitimate activism was what really struck a chord with me.

Another topic about individual’s dependency on the public is the laming of the youth in Levine’s article. Whether it is because we loan out our education, we buy unrealistically fabricated products of the entertainment industry “brainwashes” us with or we buy into repressive ideals drilled into us- the youth has been programmed to believe that they owe themselves or what they have to someone. Essentially, the youth has lost a sense of righteous rebelliousness, freewill and independence.

Based on these readings, my questions for SubRosa are: (1) What is your opinion of the defining line between silent support for activist beliefs and actual activism? Is one more important or valid than the other… or is there no difference? (2) Levine’s paper deals critiques of social structures but doesn’t focus so much on finding a solution. Some of SubRosa’s work involves heavily encouraged participation from the public… is this your way of giving some form of power back to the people?

 

Blog Post #6: Wikipedia Entry

Before I went to art school, my father diligently tried to convince me to study engineering in college. Though not the obvious sentiment, my father has always expressed his beliefs that it is the time to be a female engineer. According to him, a lot of advantageous engineering positions are being given to women nowadays. Companies are starting to realize the unique value of having a woman’s expertise in such a “man’s world”. In his company alone, there have been multiple scholarships, grants and special opportunities given strictly females to encourage female participation in the engineering world.

This is why I decided to do my Wikipedia entry on Nancy Deloye Fitzroy. She isn’t necessarily a first-and-foremost self-declared feminist, but she does have a prominent role in the advancement of female presence in the engineering world. She is an internationally known mechanical engineering expert. In 1949, she became the first women to study chemical engineering at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. Eventually, she turned to more administrative and management roles, especially in her specialty field: heat transfer mechanics. She has over a hundred academic papers and three patents under her belt.

In 1986 she was the first women to head a a major national engineering society as she was appointed president of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers. Though she has retired, she still serves as a chair in the committee to this day. In 2008, she was awarded Honorary Membership by ASME for her efforts in maintaining the longevity and prosperity of mechanical engineering. ASME has even founded a “pioneering” and/or technology “breakthrough”award in her and her husband’s name.

Fitzroye already has a wikipedia page, but I chose her because I wanted to contribute to her page by identifying her role in advancing women’s opportunity and reputation in engineering. She has become a role model for not only women in engineering, but for women considering stepping into many male-dominated fields. In fact, she has not only been viewed as an equal-opportunity-activist for females, but also as an engineering leader for men and women alike. Throughout her career, she advocated for providing career opportunities for women in her field. As president of ASME she set the precedent for trying to diversify the engineering workforce, and not only in a gender context. There have since been multiple female ASME presidents and presidents of both genders that have adopted her approach in developing the richness of the engineering workforce.

Blog Post #5: Accessibility and Inequality of Technology

I was fortunate enough to be born into a family like mine. Among the many reasons why I count my lucky stars is the fact that my father works for not only an international oilfield services company, but the world’s largest at that. First of all, my father got his first job with Schlumberger because he was the only one of the candidates for the position that could both speak english and had expertise in computer programming. My father was only able to get the education he did because my grandparents sent him and his older brother to go live with their aunt and uncle. Their aunt and uncle lived in Bandung, which was the hub of education at the time and also where the nationally renowned university: ITB (Bandung Institute of Technology) was situated. My uncle went on scholarship to study at UPenn’s Wharton School of Business and only returned to Indonesia to take up a very high authority position at the Bank of Indonesia. My father went on to study at ITB and learned programming there. Though his job title has changed more than half of a dozen times, my father still works for Schlumberger even after 20 years. Of his five siblings, because of their access to higher education (and better technology), only my father and his brother ever found success outside of Indonesia.

I think that this example reflects how technology doesn’t only connect us through the internet but also in the sense that technology, and computer programming more specifically, is a pretty universally understood language. If my father hadn’t learned computer programming, I wouldn’t be living the life that I have, I wouldn’t be using the technology that I now own and I wouldn’t be attending this school, but attending a university in Indonesia instead. I wouldn’t have lived in Japan, Thailand, France, the U.A.E. and U.S.A. if it weren’t for my father’s job. My privileged life is directly because my father received a “modern” education with technology. Such an education qualified him for his job because his experience with technology was what graduated him from a local to a global market.

To this day, I can still see the effects of my father’s and uncle’s education, reflected in my, my brother’s and my cousin’s lifestyles. Though my other aunts and uncles are by no means barely scraping by, because they grew up independent of technology, their children too (or at least by contemporary terms). All of my father’s side of the family besides my direct family still lives in Indonesia and of my cousins, my uncle’s twin children have the most privileged by far. The twins were the youngest when they received their first “smart-screen” hand-held device. They are also considered the “smartest” and “most achieved” (for their age) of our cousins. Not as a criticism, but a simple observation, they are also, however, the children on the couple that can afford the best schools and private tutors. I can honestly say that the first time that all my other relatives had wifi in their house was no more than 5 or 6 years ago.

Like I said, I’ve lived all over the world so the last time that I lived in Indonesia was over 12 years ago. At that point even, I had already lived in two other countries. Even though my family still tries to return to Jakarta for a one-month-long visit every year, my brother and I always felt like the odd-ones-out from our family because of our constant relocations. I feel like for a lot of my younger cousins, my brother and I were somewhat of a myth. I also feel like our 11-month absences left our lifestyles away from Indonesia completely up to their young and vibrant imaginations. Sometimes, when I visited, I feel like they were as excited to see me as they were to see what new gadget I had brought back to show (and lend) them. One of the most awkward experiences I’ve ever had with any of my cousins was when my cousin asked me if I could bring him and his two sisters a laptop, iPad and iPhone for our next visit. He had concluded that just because we had moved around a lot that we were living the lifestyle of the rich and famous. He had seen the technology my brother and I use and automatically assumed that we just because of our access to technology that we were infinitely wealthier than they were… so much so that we could even casually afford to by the three gifts for them when we visited next. Yes, my life has been filled with many exciting and unique experiences, but I would never describe my life as luxurious. It shocked me to hear that my cousin had made such an assumption and so casually and easily at that.

Honestly, having moved around so much I don’t find Ann Arbor any less welcoming and technology-accessible as any other city I’ve ever lived in. In fact, that inspires my question for the College of New Jersey students: Did any of you live your entire life in the same city? Do you know anyone that has moved around a lot? If you were to compare your lifestyles, would you automatically assume that they had a more privileged life just because of the number of places they’ve called home?

 

Blog Post 8

Thought Catalog is one of my favorite websites to visit daily. It has many contributing authors, so there is always a new and interesting article to read. There are all different styles of posts and articles, about a variety of subjects. I tend to gravitate toward the shorter articles that often resemble a list. They are usually an easy, fun read that offer tips or relatable anecdotes and comments. However, it is within these types of posts that I often see the most feminine policing or gendering. Sometimes the posts seem light-hearted or written with good intentions, but they are still very problematic. Many of them are reinforcing feminine stereotypes or shaming women, like the ones below…

 

These articles just perpetuate gender roles and unhealthy ideologies. The article “25 New Rules Every Girlfriend Should Follow In 2015,” is just a list of 25 things that the author believes makes a woman a better girlfriend. It operates under the assumption that all women are in similar relationships, with similar values and similar partners. It insinuates that if a woman isn’t abiding by these rules, then she isn’t as good of a girlfriend as she could, and should be. This article simultaneously shames women for not being a good enough girlfriend, while giving her the tools to become one. But every relationship and every woman is different. These rules are the product of one woman’s experiences, and they don’t apply to everyone. A woman should be whatever kind of girlfriend that is true to herself and her relationship with her partner.

Even when I read these kinds of articles and recognize the manner in which they enforce gender stereotypes, it’s difficult not feel influenced by their messages. I think that’s what makes these articles so troubling sometimes. Even when I know better, I begin to doubt myself. When posts list 10 things that will make a woman more attractive to men, its hard not wonder if maybe I’m not doing something right. Feminine stereotypes are in almost every facet of the media, and trying to resist the cultural pressures isn’t easy. Thought Catalog authors are often good at tricking me into believing that they are rejecting traditional gender roles, when in actuality they are simply modifying them.

Additionally, these articles are usually written for specific races or sexualities. It is often very easy to identify the targeted sexual audience regarding articles written about love and relationships. Unless specified otherwise, posts for heterosexual couples are abundant. The situations they describe or the advice they provide will clearly apply to male-female couples only. Beauty and cosmetic articles tend to make product suggestions on the assumption that the reader is Caucasian. Though the stereotyping isn’t always blatant, it is most definitely present.

Blog Post 3

Creativity plays a huge role in my life, influencing a lot of the decisions I make in my daily life and for my future. I always enjoyed arts and crafts as a young girl, and I was able to more fully develop my artistic nature once I began high school. I was on the Fine Arts track starting my freshman year. I really loved being able to express my creativity every day in class, breaking up the monotony of my academic courses. Collaborating with my peers was fun and inspiring. Not only do I enjoy creating art, but I also love to appreciate the works of others. I’m a very visual person; therefore art satisfies and fulfills me in ways that other subjects and activities fail. Having a more laid-back and introverted personality, creative projects allow me to express my bolder emotions or ideas. I can manifest what I’m feeling or thinking into something physical and tangible, giving it form and physicality. But I still have the control over how, or if, I want to share it with others.

I think one’s creativity is important to embrace. It’s more than simply fine arts or performing arts, its way to broaden horizons and open the mind. It unleashes new possibilities and innovation. Being creative is a skill that is valued in many industries and societies, especially within the current generations. As digital media and technology industries thrive, creative minds are extremely valued and needed. Companies are constantly trying to develop different social media network, marketing schemes, mobile applications, and more. Now is one of the best times for creative types to benefit from their skills and ideas. Success and recognition is no longer limited to traditional careers like doctors, lawyers, and bankers. Media and technology have created a culture that demands modernization and constant improvement. Creative minds are needed to respond to these desires – and their innovations, in turn, stimulate more creativity.

I believe that digital technologies are very important to imagination for our generation, providing people the tools to be creators and visionaries. Websites, devices, applications, and software have been made more easily accessible to people of all ages and backgrounds. With blog forums, like WordPress, anyone is free to publish their work on the Internet. People can make pages and profiles about anything that interests them, like art or stories or food recipes. Creating a YouTube or Vine account can allow users to do the same through video. They can post videos to showcase their musical talents or acting skills or directorial debuts. Digital technologies like these allow users to explore their creative imaginations by participating with any the different types. The can expressly themselves freely and anonymously, if they so choose. Depending on the platform, Internet users have the ability to be whomever they want, craft avatars and change personalities. They don’t have to submit to societal or cultural norms as they would in the offline world. Digital technologies people to discover and develop thoughts, designs, fantasies, and more.

Blog Post 4

In another one of my Screen Arts and Cultures class this semester, we had a screening of The Matrix. I had never seen the movie before, and had little understanding of the plot before arriving to class. I found the movie overwhelming with such an intricate plot and cautionary message towards technology. It was very thought-provoking film, and I left the class reflecting on the role that technology and machinery play in my own life. Though I felt somewhat foolish, I was beginning to question just how fictional aspects of The Matrix were, or would be. Technoscience is a rapidly progressing industry. Our society is increasingly more reliant on machines and technology to simplify, and presumably, improve our lives. We try to develop new devices that can help us in almost every action we might perform. Some innovations are truly valuable and beneficial, especially those in the medical field.

However, this research also has tremendous potential to breach moral and ethical codes. In The Matrix, humans are born from a machine. Their conception and growth is facilitated by an enormous technological structure. It seemed bizarre and ridiculous, but quickly became frightening as I realized it wasn’t a complete impossibility. Doctors and scientists are already making strides in cloning animals and DNA, as well as growing organs and tissue from stem cells. But many people have protested and fought against such manipulation of human biology. They believe it is unnatural and inherently wrong to tamper with human biology. Yet, I have generally supported this kind of medical research, believing it could save lives. But after completing the week’s readings and attending our class, I find myself incredibly divided in my stance on the mechanization of biological processes.

I’m embarrassed to admit that I hadn’t considered how women could be affected if artificial pregnancy or ectogenesis became a viable option for having a child. I failed to consider the concept more thoroughly, how such a science could fail to imitate the biological intricacies of creating a human life or strip women of their role in the reproduction process. As discussed in Aristarkhova’s article Ectogenesis and Mother as Machine, women’s bodies and wombs are more than a ‘clever incubator.’ The process of human development is insinuated to be simple and easily replicable, which is absolutely false. The female body is complex and special, having the ability to create a natural nurturing environment for the growth and birth of a baby. There is an intimate and real connection that a woman has with her child, that which cannot be simulated by machines. By dissociating birth from the maternal body, the development of the child seems clinical and easy to manipulate. It takes the role of childbearing from women – a role that history has long made women believe was their only purpose in life. Such an amazing ability should be respected as inherently female, and remain that way.

I support the use of machines and technology when it is used in situations as helping to sustain a pregnancy or aid complications before and after birth. However, I believe that machines and technology should not be used to create entirely artificial environments for the development of a child. I think that the natural biological phenomena of pregnancy should be respected and not mechanized.

Gender Stereotypes in Society

After reading through my previous blog entries, I was surprised to find such a theme that I felt was prevalent throughout the year but just now realized I am fully able to express. This overarching theme of sorts that truly made a deep impression on me was this idea of gender identification through the mundane tasks of every day life. For example, the reading on Ectogenesis, Mother as Machine, and Robots as Caregivers really made me realize that these gender norms in every day life go so far as to define who cares for who, who raises who, and who provides for who in terms of gender stereotypes. To think that a woman is the stereotypical figure to raise a child in the home in terms of actually HAVING the child was one of the more interesting and thought provoking conversations I have been a part of. Not only are women considered the main individuals to physically have a child, but they are also thought of as nurturers and care takers. To think that machines have the capability to provide some of the same services as nurses and humans is incredible. Throughout the discussion we discovered that machines, although helpful, smart and advanced, lack this humanistic quality that a human touch and nurturing sense of caring is able to provide.

In terms of gaming, I think our conversations that once again revolved around gendered stereotypes were very interesting. These gender norms even turned into a conversation that included gender preferences in the gaming industry. I found this conversation thrilling in a sense, because as I am not an avid “gamer” myself, I was able to understand how insiders of this world almost perceived other players and how gender came across in this game setting. These gaming industries cater to a male-dominated society, and women are seen as inadequate in a sense or for not having as strong of a “gaming” ability as males. This conversation provoked a thought that led to a deeper wonder and desire to understand just why these stereotypes exist, and how they even began to develop in the first place.

Finally, the last piece of the conversation and discussion later in the semester turned to gender norms within the household in terms of the game The Sims. The Sims, being based around stereotypes in the family, are drawn around this “idealized” sense of home and community. Thinking about these differences and why these things are assumed really made me question gender stereotypes even further.

I feel as though many aspects of this class really helped me to push my ideas of gender within society, and made me feel so empowered to embrace a change that goes against what people believe HAS to be true. Pushing these boundaries and discovering how we learn and grow within society has helped me to embrace this overarching theme of feminism and technology, which is something that I will continue to push the boundaries of.

Extra Credit Blog Post

Stefanie Wushitz gave a very interesting presentation of feminist hackerspaces. Some of the topics that were touched upon were definitely expected, but I definitely still learned a lot and was surprised by a few “feminist hackerspace” factoids.

For example, she talked about how Wikipedia is predominantly male but I didn’t realize that females only make up a meager 1.5% of developers in open source software. This prompted Wuschitz’ research question: “Why are we not seeing more open source projects that are developed from a female perspective?” I found that this question drove a very intriguing exploration of community-based behaviors and relationships that I hadn’t expected to learn about.

First things first however, she touched upon the importance of open digital cornucopia’s of informational collaboration. With references from Judith Butler, Bruno Latour to Henri Lefebvre, she talked about the importance of understanding others before understanding yourself, how to behave in society systems, what happens in a society when an individual changes their behavior, and how change originates from people’s influences over each other.

This led to talking about the importance of hackerspaces… “a living room for people to share tools/thoughts”… “a place of comfort for nerds, geeks, coders, hackers”… “a community to engage in an economy of knowledge”. She talked about its roots in Cold War counterculture, acting in an actocracy and its current worldwide expansions (i.e. the establishments of Ubuntu, RaspberryPi, Arduino, etc…).

Then she segued into the heart of the presentation: the invisible censorship and lack of diversity in traditional hackerspaces. However, what I appreciated about her concern was that it transcended the prejudice against women on cyberspace. Wuschitz wanted to spearhead a progression for all of those who felt uncomfortable or unwelcome, not just women. She identified the problem with having an “open” space with an unwelcoming atmosphere because it led to an inaccessibility. In fact this goes to the degree that which there was a completely seperate set of technology that women could use: “Pink hardware”, as in rounder and pinker software. (Ironically, Wuschitz recalled that in workshops, people (mostly men) grabbed at the “pink” micro-controllers over the “blue” ones because the feminine looking ones appeared easier to learn)

Unfortunately, Wuschitz foresaw issues with trying to force the “unwelcome” assimilation. So she decided to “split off” and make her own feminist hackerspace. Her research led her to learning about pioneers such as Carolee Shneermann and Lillian Schwartz & travelling to Indonesia, Nepal, San Francisco and Seattle.

This is my favorite part: Wuschitz developed a space-based society model for her “New Hacker Ethic”. It was inspired by the matriarchal Minangkabau tribe in the Sumatran Island of Indonesia. they practice a space-based society similar to the relation-based society of Nepal. This practice dictates that once you enter this space, you belong to us. Furthermore, once you belong to us, you share the space with us; multiple ownership. All spatial practices are useful rituals. All that is significant and or fundamentally important to the community must be celebrated. Any obstacle is a chance for self-formation, however it will be dealt with on a communal platform. Resilience occurs when we invite allies and introduce a new spatial practice.

I am absolutely crazy about the fact she didn’t simply try to imitate community practices within her online one… her feminist hackerspace literally is one. They even have a moral code of law like one. The first thing I did after the presentation was call my mother about it. She grew up in Indonesia and actually was very aware of the Minangkabau tribe. In fact, when accounting what I had learned, I focused on the space-based society part of her presentation… My mother interrupted me and “told” me how they are a matriarchal society. So even among Indonesians, the Minangkabau are known for this special characteristic. I can’t express enough how much I enjoyed learning about Stefanie Wuschitz’ research and I hope to hear more on her progress on maintaining the longevity of feminine hackerspaces.