Interview with MISTIC's Gabrielle Odowichuck

This Thursday the girls at Girl Power 3.0 took a break from our studies...or did we? We attended one of our previous survey participants' events - Pecha Kucha Nights. This presentation format means 10 people present 20 slides and speak about each one for 20 seconds. This phenomenon, which is Japanese for 'chit chat' has spread throughout the world. Pecha Kucha night happens every two months in Victoria. This months theme was Music, so of course we were on board. Perhaps it might relate to our project, or provide some inspiration for us to commence our musical pursuits! This is where we met Gabrielle Odowichuk. Her presentation really stood out for us for two reasons: one, it was phenomenal!!! She is doing some really progressive stuff at her MISTIC lab at UVic involving computer science and music. Secondly, she was one of very few girls presenting, hmm....We were so happy to have met her, and we wanted you to hear her story right from the source. This is her interview with us here:

Girl Power 3.0:Please tell us your relationship with technology. For example, what field are you in? or How do you use technology in your spare time?

I’m an masters’ student in electrical engineering. I use technology enthusiastically at work and in my spare time.

GP3: If you have a good relationship with technology, how did you forge this? What experiences provided you with the tools to feel confident using technology?

I think I’ve always been good with technology… I was definitely always good at math. I remember back as far elementary school the feeling I got from doing math… but I think it was more about feeling like I was good at something that made me love it so much.

Also, I think my strong intelligent mother gave me the mindset that these sort of traits were a good thing.

GP3: What barriers did you face,if any, due to your gender or gender stereotypes?

I somehow brainwashed for a couple years in high school, and had actually convinced myself that I wasn’t smart and I wasn’t good at math and science. In grade eleven I didn’t even do well in my science classes!

I think the issue was this stereotype that blond girls … or girls in general… aren’t supposed to be smart. More specifically, that being smart isn’t pretty.

GP3: How, if at all, is technology tied into your identity? ie. Identity production...

I don’t think I would do this kind of work if I didn’t get so much pleasure out of telling people about it. Very much tied into my identity… and I like it when people are pleasantly surprised. “Oh, good for youuuuu”, is the most common response and it’s kinda awkward sometimes.

Where it’s the best is with the guys I work with – I like working with them a lot and I’m really popular cause they don’t know many other girls. On top of that, across the board they respect me for my work. I think I’ve earned that respect and it’s a good feeling.

GP3: What, in you opinion, prevent girls from accessing or feeling confident using/producing technology?

It’s like, if you decide you’re not going to be good at something, you won’t be good at it.

I think some girls don’t want to be good at this stuff, and if they really don’t want to be good at it that’s ok.

If the reason they don’t want to be good at is because they’re worried they won’t be able to get a date, that’s bad. Though maybe sometimes accurate :P

GP3: What message would you give to girls today about pursuing technology or computer based fields?

It’s almost never going to work right away, but there is always an answer to your question. Computer science and technology involves many hours of beating your head against a wall before you figure things out. Don’t give up

Thank you so much for sharing your experiences with us Gabrielle! As three Women's Studies majors initially intimidated by technology, it is so nice to have someone from the inside of the industry, and more importantly from our own school to speak to us. We appreciate so much the application of what you produce to your interpersonal relationships. You are a local resource and tangible motivation to us! Please keep us updated with your influential, ground breaking work!

Interview with blogger Majestic Legay

Girl Power 3.0 interviewed master blogger and feminist activist Majestic Legay about their relationship with technology. Read more about Legay's blogs at That's So Majestic and Glitter Politic.


GP3: Please tell us your relationship with technology. For example, what field are you in? or How do you use technology in your spare time?

ML: I use the internet to blog about body politics, queer identity, whiteness and decolonization and love.


GP3: If you have a good relationship with technology, how did you forge this? What experiences provided you with the tools to feel confident using technology?

ML: I mean, I just always had access to a computer growing up, and I saw the internet as a way to have a voice. Newer blogging websites like Tumblr strive to be very user friendly, so I just saw that other people were doing it and jumped right in!


GP3:What barriers did you face,if any, due to your gender or gender stereotypes?

ML: I would say there were few barriers that stopped me from accessing the internet due to my gender, but that gender is a white and western one so perhaps that is why.


GP3: How, if at all, is technology tied into your identity? ie. Identity production...

ML:I talk a lot about identity politics and identity online. I started out my blog as “innerfatgirl” and was welcomed into the ‘fat acceptance’ community, which on Tumblr is largely white women. Coming out as trans/gender queer really changed that but it also opened me to new political online communities that I wasn’t as much a part of before.


GP3: What, in you opinion, prevent girls from accessing or feeling confident using/producing technology?

ML: I think just the notion that women/those socialized as women don’t have a voice or something to say. For me, my blog has given me a voice which has encouraged other people to use their voices in their own ways that make them feel strong. Getting over the fear you have nothing important to say is a fear many people I know who are women or were socialized women face.

GP3: What message would you give to girls today about pursuing technology or computer based fields?

ML: I really don’t know a ton about technology/computer based fields. I’d say fake it till you make it.


So there you have our survey results from Magestic Legay. I personally LOVE this Tumblog. We wanted to include Magestic in our project as a person who uses the internet to engage in queer-girl politics. As someone that uses the internet to speak their voice, and someone who considers this to be an online community-contributing regularly Magestic's story was so important for us to highlight. This is a perfect example of queer identity production via internet ie. Girl produced media. Just as in Susan Driver's book, Queer Girls in Popular Culture: reading, resisting and creating media, the internet provides an alternative to mainstream, mass media messages about heternormative girlhoods being the norm. These sites provide a place to resignify and reread narratives about sexuality and girls lived realities. They expand the options of media performativity and complicate embodied images available to girls. Instead of queer representation being exploited and appropriated by the skinny, white girls we see kissing on teen dramas as of late, we see a step back from comodification and enter the realm of 'talking back' to media representations. Instead this area of the internet is reserved for opposition to institutional images of girls. We see queer girls engagement with and resistance of popculture. And it is awesome!

Thank you Magestic!

Surveying the situation....

Check out Anonymous Advertising here!

We are fortunate to have interviewed a Tech Girl local to Victoria. We wondered what it is like in a world where girls are competent and confident with their technology, so we sent a survey along to Aleya a talented business owner to provide some insight into her lived experience as a female in the Tech World. We at Girl Power 3.0 thank her for her contributions to our Blog about Girls inspiring Girls and inspired by Girls to touch the buttons! She certainly does, so please read more about Aleya!

Girl Power 3.0: Please tell us your relationship with technology. For example, what field are you in? or How do you use technology in your spare time?

I ‘m an art director and web/digital content developer. I rely on technology as much for my livelihood as my social network and it’s a big enough part of my life that I loose sleep and experience some initial anxiety when access to my computer, iPhone and the internet is limited. I’m not super proud of this.

GP3: If you have a good relationship with technology, how did you forge this? What experiences provided you with the tools to feel confident using technology?

I consider my use of technology to be pretty key to my having overcome a lot of social anxiety and lack of self-esteem It’s also key to my ability to build a competitive skill set in my field. I’ve mostly taken advantage of the passive opportunities – like learning skills required for creative disciplines online where I’m not held back from experimenting by my reluctance to have have my initial attempts on display. It’s has been key to my developing a critical professional network that I wouldn’t have had the confidence to put together in-person.

GP3: What barriers did you face,if any, due to your gender or gender stereotypes?

When I first began working in the advertising/design field in New York as a graduate fresh out of school I was in almost every company I worked for, the only female on staff in the creative department. With the exception of one agency that was owned and run by three female partners, the creative departments were generally staffed by men (young and old), the IT departments were staffed by men and the account management department (responsible for coddling clients) was largely staffed by females deemed better equipped to handle business men and CEOs of varying temperments.

Several things made me realize the gender stereotypes at work:

Despite being employed as the senior art director I was often mistaken for an accounts person.

In meetings and presentations, it was not uncommon for new clients to display a look of concern when introduced to me as the art director on their account than they would with the male designer with 5-10 years less experience.

On more than one occasion I was told I designed like a man. I have yet to figure out what the hell that means.

GP3: How, if at all, is technology tied into your identity? ie. Identity production...

I’m in a field where the tools being used change and advance at a ridiculously rapid rate. Being able to stay on top of the latest technology available to you and giving yourself space and time to grow familiar enough with it to harness it for your own work and creative expression often becomes a part of my profession that’s really only realistic to men in the field once we reach the age that women’s spare time is more invested in finding a partner, nurturing a new relationship or raising children.

Having chosen the more typical “male” path in my field, I’m once again finding myself amongst fewer and fewer females invested in staying relevant and up-to-date. I’m starting to see that being a female in the field is once again becoming a key part of how I’m identified by others whether I like it or not.

Some times I struggle with this sometimes I use it to my advantage. Mostly I wish it wasn’t in the way of how people evaluate what I do.

GP3:vWhat, in you opinion, prevent girls from accessing or feeling confident using/producing technology?

I think I can really only speak for myself on this one. In my case it wasn’t so much my own giving into some really out dated stereotypes about what genders are best suited technology-based fields as it was those around me I relied on for support and reassurance. There’s far too much subconscious programming that happens to a person well-before a kid has developed the agency required to make their own decisions about their plans for their life’s work. Particularly in the field of technology, where there is already a culture of worshipping the newest and latest (in computers, etc.) it takes a certain amount of self-confidence to feel competent and worthy of being given access to these “magical” things.

GP3: What message would you give to girls today about pursuing technology or computer based fields?

The field is ENTIRELY LEVELLED!!!!!! Think sprawling bazaar of wonderful, accessible opportunities to sample rather than towering cathedral to carefully climb. The biggest factor in people’s success with technology has less to do with the opportunities presented or made available to them and more to do with how willing they are to put themselves out there. Anyone that thinks it’s un-ladylike to be willing to put themselves out there and promote themselves will be hurting themselves.

GP3; Can you recommend us any other links about girls creating media or producing technology? How about Programs you may know of for girls trying to get into such a field?

This event has become a huge success locally and gets tremendous participation from women in some creative and technology related fields. My guess it has something to do with the absence of men.

http://dasilvaphotography.ca/2011/02/february-2011-girl%E2%80%99s-night-mixer-event-launch/

OUR EVENT!!!!

While we struggle to find female presenters that are confident and willing, we think we’ve had a hand in introducing some pretty talented women to the local professional community at our PechaKucha Night. Myself and Amanda Smith are the organizers and recruiters:

http://www.pecha-kucha.org/night/victoria/

Aleya has had a hand in introducing technologically savvy, talented women to the professional community and we are so pleased to have introduced her to you! Thank you Aleya for an insightful and inspiring look into your place of work/world. If you would like to share your relationship with technology with us, please send us an email to receive your survey as engaginggirlhoodsproject@gmail.comhttp://www.anonymousadvertising.com/index.php