w i r e d w r a n t



All of that dialogue about community and access and education. All of those disruptive and radical implications about how technology reveals breakdowns in gender roles and biological definitions. All of those provocative suggestions that technology is merely a means to an end; that it's not how much RAM you have, but what you can say or do with it. All of those women who propose a more critical understanding than simply "technology as boy toy."

"Dear Wired One," the insert letter begins, at once condescending and congratulatory, reminding the reader of her membership among an elite so-called Wired crew....

...Well, actually, you and the countless others who will have the opportunity to buy this issue well into the next year, according to the fine print on the cover instructing shopkeepers to "keep on the shelves until January", please enjoy the 6 month's efforts of "dozens of our finest contributors." Dozens? Well, actually, judging by the cover and the table o'contents, lets touch base with the teeniest hint of reality. A dozen. A dozen men. A dozen of the same contributors, spouting the same rhetoric, only this time the pages are conspicuously appointed with 40 point type, allowing only 20 lines, with approximately 5 words each. Most of the articles are typeset this way, 100 words to a page, in toxic metallic ink, indicating to you, dear wired one, that not only is the future fabulously wired and woman-free, it will also exist in a world unburdened by trees, as demonstrated by this shameless waste of paper. No resource, they seem to suggest, is too precious to waste, as they recite their tired rants to an adoring audience, preaching to the converted crew while in search of a clue.

Ultimately, WiReD is bound by no quotas or even interesting and compelling editorial policies. Their own self-perpetuated hypocrisy, "egalitarian democratic chatter completely zippy unhindered by social issues cauz we're all wired anyway" is a uniquely white male privilege, and their own badass business. What burns me is their failure to take advantage of the opportunity to do some progressive (it doesn't even have to be radical) publishing, and get some off center and crucial insights out there about technology . It needn't be rhetoric of technology demonized, naturalized or organic-ized, no, I happen to hate that muck. No, I'm just suggesting more than a cursory glance at the excellent out-there unheard of things women are thinking and doing with technology.

Time for a wireless magazine.