Feminist and Queer Information Studies Reader

717 Pages·2013·2 MB·English

by  Patrick Keilty and Rebecca Dean (eds.)

Feminist and Queer
Information Studies
Reader
This title is number 4 in the Litwin Books Series on Gender and
Sexuality in Information Studies, Emily Drabinski, Series Editor.
Also in the series:
Number 1: Out Behind the Desk: Workplace Issues for LGBTQ Librarians,
edited by Tracy Nectoux
Number 2: Make Your Own History: Documenting Feminist and Queer
Activism in the 21st Century, edited by Lyz Bly and Kelly Wooten
Number 3: Feminist Pedagogy for Library Instruction, by Maria Accardi
Forthcoming:
Ephemeral Material: Queering the Archive, by Alana Kumbier
Queers Online: LGBT Digital Practices in Libraries, Archives, and
Museums, Edited by Rachel Wexelbaum
Feminist and Queer
Information Studies
Reader
Patrick Keilty and Rebecca Dean, Editors
Litwin Books
Sacramento, California
Published by Litwin Books, 2013
P.O. Box 188784
Sacramento, CA 95818
http://litwinbooks.com
This book is printed on acid-free paper meeting all present ANSI stan-
dards for archival preservation.
Cover design by Jennifer Hennesy
Layout by Martin K. Wallace
Index by Lynley Wheaton
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Feminist and queer information studies reader / editors: Patrick Keilty and
Rebecca Dean.
pages cm. -- (Litwin Books series on gender and sexuality in information
studies ; 4)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Summary: “Gathers existing research along with new scholarship on the
intersection of gender and sexuality and information use”--Provided by pub-
lisher.
ISBN 978-1-936117-16-1 (alk. paper)
1. Women’s studies. 2. Feminism. 3. Sexual minorities. 4. Gays. I. Keilty,
Patrick editor of compilation. II. Dean, Rebecca, 1982- editor of compilation.
HQ1180.F428 2013
305.42--dc23
2013008438
Contents
Acknowledgements ix
Foreword
~~Sandy Stone xii
Introduction
~~Patrick Keilty 1
Part One
Information as Gendered Labor 11
The Bride Stripped Bare to Her Data:
Information Flow + Digibodies
~~Mary Flanagan 13
Essentialism and Care in a Female-Intensive Profession
~~Melodie J. Fox and Hope A. Olson 48
Reflections on Meaning in Library and Information Studies:
A Personal Odyssey through Information, Sexuality, and Gender
~~Alvin M. Schrader 62
Part Two
Cyborgs and Cyberfeminism 99
Feminist Theories of Technology
~~Judy Wajcman 101
Cyborg Feminism and the Methodology of the Oppressed
~~Chela Sandoval 117
Developing a Corporeal Cyberfeminism:
Beyond Cyberutopia
~~Jessica E. Brophy 137
vi The Feminist and Queer Information Studies Reader
Part Three
Online Environment 161
Going On-line:
Consuming Pornography in the Digital Era
~~Zabet Patterson 163
Avatars and the Visual Culture of Reproduction on the Web
~~Lisa Nakamura 182
“OH NO! I’M A NERD!”
Hegemonic Masculinity on an Online Forum
~~Lori Kendall 227
Part Four
Information Organization 249
How We Construct Subjects: A Feminist Analysis
~~Hope A. Olson 251
Queer Theory and the Creation of Contextual Subject
Access Tools for Gay and Lesbian Communities
~~D. Grant Campbell 290
Paraphilias:
The Perversion of Meaning in the Library of Congress Catalog
~~Melissa Adler 309
Administrating Gender
~~Dean Spade 324
Part Five
Information Extraction, Information Flow 351
On Torture: Abu Ghraib
~~Jasbir K. Puar 353
Tacit Subjects
~~Carlos Ulises Decena 384
A Tapestry of Knowledge:
Crafting a New Approach to Information Sharing
~~Sherilyn M. Williams and Pamela J. McKenzie 406
Sharing Economies and Value Systems on the Nifty Archive

~~Mica Ars Hilson 431
Table of Contents vii
Part Six
Archive 441
Police/Archives
~~Steven Maynard 443
The Brandon Archive
~~Judith Halberstam 473
Love and Lubrication in the Archives, or rukus!
A Black Queer Archive for the United Kingdom
~~Ajamu X, Topher Campbell, and Mary Stevens 502
“Welcome Home”
An Exploratory Ethnography of the Information
Context at the Lesbian Herstory Archives
~~Danielle Cooper 526
Accessing Transgender //
Desiring Queer(er?) Archival Logics
~~K. J. Rawson 542
In the Archives of Lesbian Feelings:
Documentary and Popular Culture
~~Ann Cvetkovich 561
Part Seven
Performance 599
How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Rape Kit
~~Aliza Shvarts 601
Joe Orton, Kenneth Halliwell and the Islington Public Library:
Defacement, Parody and Mashups
~~D. Grant Campbell 620
Becoming Dragon:
A Transversal Technology Study
~~micha cárdenas 640
GRIDs, Gay Bombs, and Viral Aesthetics:
Queer Technologies’ Networked Assemblages
~~Zach Blas 662
viii The Feminist and Queer Information Studies Reader
Afterword
~~Leah A. Lievrouw 679
Author Bios 683
Index 689
Acknowledgements
This book saw its genesis in the especially conducive environments of the
UCLA Departments of Information Studies and Women’s Studies (now
Gender Studies), where we had the privilege to study information, technol-
ogy, gender, and sexuality as graduate students. We owe the completion of
this project, in no small measure, to the commitments of these departments’
faculties and students to issues of social justice, interdisciplinary scholarship,
and critical studies. We are extravagantly indebted to them for creating a
rialto of common lending, borrowing, and exchange.
We also owe a lot to the personal participation of others. In particular,
Sandra Harding’s generosity continues to amaze and inspire us. She set aside
invaluable time to teach us the process of editing our first book—a humbling
experience from someone we so deeply admire. Sandra personifies the ideal
advisor: patient, thoughtful, clear, useful, encouraging, and knowledgeable.
Without Sandra, we would not have known where to begin. She has advised
us throughout this project, from its inception to its completion. We can only
hope to emulate her example in our future advisory roles.
Other intellectual and moral support came from Zach Blas, Joseph Bris-
tow, Clara Chu, Ron Day, Johanna Drucker, Mary Flanagan, Dustin Fried-
man, Jonathan Furner, Anne Gilliland, Grace Hong, David Kim, Andrew
Lau, Gregory Leazer, Leah Lievrouw, Mary Niles Maack, Lilly Nguyen, Li-
ladhar Pendse, James Schultz, Katie Shilton, Sandy Stone, Liza Taylor, Sharon
Traweek, Jillian Wallace, Michael Wartenbe, Vivian Wong, Laura Wynholds,
and Juliet Williams. Martin Weiss, in his capacity as interim chair of the
Library and Information Science Program at the University of Pittsburgh,
helped to pay the fees required for reprinting several of the essays contained
in this volume. Without such support, the fate of this book would have been,
at best, uncertain. Emily Drabinski, our series editor, continued to remind us
of the importance of this project. With a keen editorial eye, Emily gave a sty-
listic scrubbing to several essays—but it would be impossible to innumerate
her many contributions. Special thanks go to Matthew Schuman, whose sup-
port has been deeply uplifting, particularly at moments of low-ebb—when