The readings on Why Data Needs Feminism and Humanities Approaches to Graphical Display have many overlapping themes. Graphical Display argues the limits and skewing of data to present an outcome or serve a purpose. Data should be seen as “capta”, in simple terms, subjective. One way to do that, and to push forward the argument in Graphical Display is to view Data under a feminist lens. In Why Data Needs Feminism, authors briefly touch upon the inherent erasure of human experience in data, how data can remove complexities, as mentioned in Graphical Display. However, Data Needs Feminism argues “Data are part of the problem, to be sure. But they are also part of the solution.”
Reading Graphical Design was a great segway to Data Needs Feminism, Graphical Design highlights the consensus of the general public of data taken as fact, but argues “Data are capta, taken not given, constructed as an interpretation of the phenomenal world, not inherent in it.” So what interpretations of the world can we make using Data? How can we use those interpretations to advocate for ourselves and others? Does Data take new forms, with a humanist lens? Data Needs Feminism is one of many examples on using Data to not just be in interpretation of racism and sexism, but to display the intersectionality of discrimination based on race and sex. Data Needs Feminism does not shy away of the critiques of data, by referring to Data as a tool to consolidate power over lives. A quote that embodies the consolidation of power: “The process of converting life experience into data always necessarily entails a reduction of that experience—along with the historical and conceptual burdens of the term.”
Data Needs Feminism not only highlights the drawbacks of Data, similar to Graphical Design, but also lifts up the triumphs. In the case of Christine Mann Darden, the complex relationship between Data and lived experience comes into play. The way data not only validating Darden experience of workplace discrimination but gave her and colleagues the ability to advocate on a larger scale. In a sense, propelling an individual truth to a larger scale, a scale those with power could no longer ignore. Does this story, like many others, insinuate data is needed to validate lived experience? How can data shift and morph, from points on graph to pictures in a digital gallery, with feminism or more broadly a humanist approach?
