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Grrrls in Radioland.

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How can we use radio cultures and visuals, combined with sonic technofeminist theory, to explore gender bias in technology-based fields?

Technology, specifically radio technology, has had a long history of gender bias and discrimination, championed and supported by an androcentric dominance that has branched into nearly everything we use today. With a disparity in access and education, it is evident how prejudice has controlled our relationships and perception of how women interact with technology. “The sociology of technology can only be strengthened by a feminist critique. This means looking at how the production and use of technology are shaped by male power and interests.” [01] Wajcman, J. (2009). This publication will analyse radio’s sexist visual material as a reflection of the discriminatory nature of technology. Reflecting, reclaiming and adapting otherwise male-dominated landscapes by applying feminist theory onto outdated mediums, acknowledging radio’s weighty cultural history as a sight for change.

“Technology is a medium of power” [02] Cockburn, C. (1987). Consistently we see “Mens historical control over machines and the continuing underrepresentation of women in scientific and technological fields” [03] Wajcman, J. (2009, p.10) Through modern feminist theory, analysis can be made on how to improve technology spheres. “Xenofeminism seeks to strategically deploy existing technologies to re-engineer the world. Technoscientific innovation must be linked to a collective theoretical and political thinking in which women, queers, and the gender non-conforming play an unparalleled role.” [04] L, Cuboniks. (2018, p17.)

Techno, Xeno, Glitch and Cyber feminisms individually look at the relationship that women or people have with technology, computing, and the internet. With this concept in mind, I wanted to investigate how communication technology could interject a feminist lens into a male-dominated landscape as a method of information distribution, utilising “feminist ears/listening”. ‘Bodies of Sound’ [05] Revell, I and Shin, S. (2024) is a collection of essays where “histories and politics come together with sound and listening. ”Feminist ears” is a form of “Sonic agency and earwitnessing” . While analysing sound and feminist theory Ahmed encourages active listening as “Ways of thinking politically with the sonic.” With radio as a transmission, a broadcast and a receiver it becomes a tool in which we can advocate for change. When re-establishing lost connections with communication technology we can advocate for “The redistribution or rewiring of disembodied voices”. This publication aims to promote the feminist and queer political potential of reclaiming radio: “We are louder not only when we are heard together, but when we hear together” Ahmed, S. (2024, p. IV).

With a combination of practice and play this publication explores how you can create abstract uses for obsolete technologies in a modern media landscape by analysing patterns of exploitation and neglect of engagement towards women, transgender and non-binary people. “Glitched bodies - those who do not align with the canon of white cisgender heteronormativity- pose a threat to social order… The glitch challenges us to consider how we can ‘penetrate, break, puncture, tear’ the material of the institution… glitched bodies are not considered in the process of programming new creative technologies.” [06] Russell, L. (2020, p.25) Using current and archival aesthetics surrounding technologies, this publication proposes ways to build a feminist artistic radio practice, informed by existing media, that mocks the outdated traditions of radio culture. Presentation of these images through distortion and editing mirrors the theories by redefining technologies from something unwelcoming, unmonitored and sexist, into tools that can be used artistically and politically for the benefit of others. Becoming a how-to guide, introducing early information on radio technologies stylistically and intentionally referencing riot grrrl culture by looking at spaces that need infiltrating as an active form of resistance, in the hope that one day the tone of discussion around women in technology changes.

“You will never understand radio by listening to it. Take a spin through the AM or FM band on your set and you’ll find music, sports, news and a witty repartee… radio contrary to what the commercial broadcasters and regulatory bodies would have you believe, is a model built of putty. You can stretch it, tug it, and reshape it.” [07] Strauss, N. (1993, p.9)

This publication encourages a feminist remodelling of how we use radio.

Radio is the technology of communication, operating via the use of electromagnetic waves to transmit or receive messages, locally or across the world. It is the basis of all media distribution and has defined everything from wifi to smartphones to television. Amature radio utilises non-commercial frequencies to transmit or exchange directly across the source, individuals can broadcast or converse by tuning into unallocated bands. “Radio is not a sound or a station... Radio waves are carrier waves - audio, images and data can hitch a ride and travel across the globe, bouncing off a part of the Earth’s upper atmosphere: the ionosphere.” [08] shortwave collective, (2023).

When travelling through radio you are moving between knowns (stations) and stretching the boundaries of borders with no edge, submerged in a static sea. Conversations are often with strangers, it’s bored truck drivers on the road, weather enthusiasts, pirate bands, or the more secretive Morse coaders. Seemingly the only thing that connects them all is men.

Over all the hours, almost all of the audio I collected was composed of men talking. A lot of these discussions are homophobic, sexist or racist. Radio discussion is unmonitored and can be completely discriminatory, I present their voices to shine a light on the bias of a very closed community that resembles so many technology boards. By using radio, we are looking at spaces that need to be infiltrated as forms of resistance.

'In a six hundred channel universe it may seem unusual to consider radio as a medium for critical intervention in today’s cultures. However, as a tool and forum, artists are using radio in ways that illuminate a profound and significant set of questions about community, technology and domination, to name a few. Though complex, these concepts are addressed in artistic practices that present themselves through serious as well as humorous means. After all, radio no longer appears as the seductive medium that it once was and artists, in choosing this form, have adopted strategies that not only acknowledge radios weighty cultural history but also lay claim to the power of aurality in human experience.’ [09]

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Bibliography:

1. Wajcman, J. (1991) feminism Confronts Technology. 2nd Edition. Pennsylvania: Penn state University Press.
2. Cockburn, C. (1987) In Machinery of Dominance. 1st Edition. Boston:
  Northeastern University Press .
3. Wajcman, J. (2009) Technofeminism. 1st Edition. Cambridge: Polity Press.
4. L, Cuboniks. (2018) The Xenofeminist Manifesto: A politics for Alienation.
  1st edition. London. Verso.
5. Ahmed, S. (2024) Bodies of Sound. 1st Edition. Edited by Revell, I and Shin, S. London: Silver Press.
6. Russell, L. (2020) Glitch Feminism: A Manifesto. 1st edition. London. Verso.
7. Strauss, N. (1993) Radio text(e). 1st Edition. New York. Semiotext(e).
8. Shortwave Collective (2023) Introduction. Available at: https://www. shortwavecollective.net/ (Accessed: 18 February 2025).
9. Augaitis, D and Mozer, M.A. (1994) Radio Rethink: Art, Sound and Transmission. 1st Edition. Edited by Augaitis, D and Mozer, M.A. Banff. Walter Philips Gallery.