Description
Book SynopsisCritically investigating the gender of programming in popular culture, Sexing Code proposes that the de facto representation of technical ability serves to perpetuate the age-old association of the male with intellect and reason, while identifying the female with the body. Challenging this division, in which code is situated within the male sphere, the discussion highlights women¹s contributions in the writing and theorizing of code, particularly in the digital arts, hacking, and hacktivism. Presenting an accessible and lively discussion, Sexing Code demonstrates that the gendering of programming selectively confers the privilege of authorship and is therefore a salient factor in the production of culture in the twenty-first century.
Trade Review"Sexing Code is a highly instructive and profound discussion on the contemporary and historic situation of women in the traditionally male dominated world of computer programming as well as on the representation of female programmers in the media . . . Herbst vividly shows that the act of programming is not randomly associated with men and that it is in fact the substantial political and economical meaning and agency of codes that guarantees and stabilizes this close association." - Andreas Jahn-Sudmann, Ph.D. Co-editor of Computer Games as a Sociocultural Phenomenon: Games Without Frontiers - War Without Tears."Claudia Herbst’s new book is an important contribution to the discussions concerned with women’s participation in code cultures. Sexing Codes incorporates both critique of media representations and the views and experiences of women in programming in order to unravel “the historical and visual milieu within which code culture is embedded.” Herbst guides her readers through an impressive range of examples, stories and contexts, from the marginalization of women in histories of computing to the gender dynamics of software culture, from the representations of female hackers in journalism and Hollywood film, to the works and views of female media artists." - Susanna Paasonen, Ph.D. Author of Figures of Fantasies.
