The Appropriation of Technology By UCSL ~~ Free Internet Tools and Why They Are Your Friend

"The term appropriate technology refers to both everyday uses of technology that are appropriate to the job at hand and the way users decide how and what to appropriate. To avoid becoming dependent on sources that extract too high a price, or to ensure that the technology will be available to everyone, one appropriates only what is needed. The slashers (their name for themselves) are constantly involved in negotiating appropriate levels of technology for use within the fandom. The emphasis is on keeping the technology accessible and democratic, although this turns out to be easier said than done."
-Constance Penley, "Brownian Motion: Women, Tactics, and Technology"

Technology and the Internet go hand in hand. "Appropriate technology" combined with the Internet is something that has slowly trickled down, however. The primary way that "appropriate technology" exists on the Internet is the explosion of free services.

This began with free email and homepages, for example: Hotmail, gURLmail, Tripod, and Geocities. These sites gave many people, who often did not have individual access to the Internet, their own private email addresses and websites, allowing them to explore interests previously denied them.

The appropriation of technology for use in fanfiction exploded however, when Onelist hit the scene. This free mailing list server allowed many different groups to come together and express themselves. A general scan reveals 84 Buffy-related lists listed under "17 and older" and 6 under "21 and older".

With this technology at hand, young women were able to, theoretically, get on any Internet terminal, whether at a public library or their own home, and check their private email, design their website, and create a list devoted to their favorite subject.

And to decorate their website, in the tradition of the finely designed illustrations of their 'zine predecessors, many of this new breed of fans construct pictures of their favorite characters, using a free photo editor called Paint Shop Pro. With this photo editor, people have made a variety of images, including slash illustrations, cover art for online 'zines, and general titles and banners for pages.

Aside from the mailing lists, email, and websites, there is also the emergence of chat rooms. Whether using mIRC, the Internet Relay Chat client for Windows, or a Java-based chat, young women are connecting and conversing in real-time about their ideas and concepts about the media text they are keenly interested in--the show.

The Appropriation of Media Text by UCSL -- Subversion of the Sex Dynamics

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