Dear Lubomir
Myths articulate or give form to fantasies of situations we fear and/or wish for. One such myth is the proposition that any group made up by a variety of human beings can be considered ungendered, i.e., that difference does not exist.
All human endevours take place within values and ideology, as the way that power is managed in a group. It can be dismissed at the price of sanitizing the object of study.
Some years ago I looked up the gender balance (M/F) amongst the paid members of the Chartered Society of Designers in London. Unsurprisingly, it was Associate Members 50/50, Members 65/35, Fellows 90/10.
Teena's question 'what does the field of design research look like from a gendered perspective' seems a very valid one, not limited to the structure of power around design employment, research posts, professorships, etc. It proposes an inquiry into the unacknowledged (?) influence of gender issues within the discipline itself.
Regards, Carlos
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Carlos Sapochnik
Middlesex University
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-----Original Message-----
From: PhD-Design - This list is for discussion of PhD studies and related research in Design on behalf of Lubomir S. Popov
Sent: Sat 1/19/2008 3:31 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Cc:
Subject: abduct all the male design researchers from this world
Hi Teena,
Please do not make provocations. You know how much contentious is
this subject matter. This can be the beginning of a major gender revolution!
I am a proponent of non-genderized science and professions. In the
professions, there should be no men and women. Men and women are in
the bars and in bed. In the professions we have doctors, engineers,
architects, planners, not men and women. If someone performs with
his/her gender thinking on the workplace, that is too bad. That is an
indication that this person is not professionalized. Professional
thinking should be unisex and specific only to the profession. When
professionalized, men and women have to give up their streetwise
gender thinking in favor of professional thinking. Anything other
than that indicates lack of professionalization.
There are a lot of myths in the world. Some of them are about dumb
blondies. Others are about caring women. And so on. The bottom line:
there is too much ideology introduced in today's world and sadly, in
the professions. All kinds of myths are disseminated in order to
obtain a better position in the process of acquiring resources.
I can talk a lot about this, but this is enough.
Best wishes Teena, I know that your provocation is only an
intellectual challenge.
Lubomir
At 04:44 PM 1/18/2008, teena clerke wrote:
>Dear All,
>
>I have a question for the list:
>
>Q: If aliens were to abduct all the male design researchers from
>this world, how do you think the field of design research will develop?
>
>Teena
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