Skip to main content

  • HOME
  • CURRENT CONTENT
  • ALL CONTENT
  • SUBMIT
  • ABOUT
    • Journal
    • Editorial
    • Call for Editor(s)
  • INFO FOR
    • Librarians
    • Authors
    • Reprints and Permissions
    • Subscriptions and Single Issues
  • MORE
    • Alerts
    • Contact Us

  • Login

  • Advanced search

  • Login
Advanced Search
  • HOME
  • CURRENT CONTENT
  • ALL CONTENT
  • SUBMIT
  • ABOUT
    • Journal
    • Editorial
    • Call for Editor(s)
  • INFO FOR
    • Librarians
    • Authors
    • Reprints and Permissions
    • Subscriptions and Single Issues
  • MORE
    • Alerts
    • Contact Us
Feminist Media Histories
What Is Your Mother's Maiden Name?
A Feminist History of Online Security Questions
Bonnie Ruberg
Feminist Media Histories, Vol. 3 No. 3, Summer 2017; (pp. 57-81) DOI: 10.1525/fmh.2017.3.3.57
Bonnie Ruberg
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Search for this author on this site
  • View author's works on this site
  • Article
  • Figures & Data
  • Info & Metrics
  • PDF
PreviousNext
Loading

Abstract

The history of online security questions demonstrates how hegemonic beliefs about gender and sexuality have come to dictate the terms of “authentic” selfhood in contemporary digital spaces. Best known for their role in web-based information management, security questions have a history in North America that stretches back more than a hundred and fifty years—from Irish immigrant banking in New York in the mid-nineteenth century, to the rise of personal computing in the 1970s and 1980s, to today. Across this history, security questions have been structured around heteronormative expectations about users’ lives and relationships. This is nowhere more evident than in the canonical security question, “What is your mother's maiden name?” To trace the evolution of the security question, this article surveys industry writings on authentication protocols from the 1850s to the present. It argues for a reevaluation of the often-unquestioned logics that perpetuate discrimination through technologies of data.

  • authentication protocol
  • gender discrimination
  • heteronormativity
  • pre-digital data
  • security questions
  • © 2017 by the Regents of the University of California. All rights reserved. Please direct all requests for permission to photocopy or reproduce article content through the University of California Press's Reprints and Permissions web page, http://www.ucpress.edu/journals.php?p=reprints.
View Full Text

Log in using your username and password

Enter your Feminist Media Histories username.
Enter the password that accompanies your username.
Forgot your user name or password?

Log in through your institution

You may be able to gain access using your login credentials for your institution. Contact your library if you do not have a username and password.
If your organization uses OpenAthens, you can log in using your OpenAthens username and password. To check if your institution is supported, please see this list. Contact your library for more details.

PreviousNext
Back to top

Vol. 3 No. 3, Summer 2017

Feminist Media Histories: 3 (3)
  • Table of Contents
  • Table of Contents (PDF)
  • Cover (PDF)
  • Index by author
  • Front Matter (PDF)
eTOC Alert

RSSRSS Icon

Email

Thank you for your interest in spreading the word on Feminist Media Histories.

NOTE: We only request your email address so that the person you are recommending the page to knows that you wanted them to see it, and that it is not junk mail. We do not capture any email address.

Enter multiple addresses on separate lines or separate them with commas.
What Is Your Mother's Maiden Name?
(Your Name) has sent you a message from Feminist Media Histories
(Your Name) thought you would like to see the Feminist Media Histories web site.
Print
Alerts
Sign In to Email Alerts with your Email Address
Citation Tools
What Is Your Mother's Maiden Name?
A Feminist History of Online Security Questions
Bonnie Ruberg
Feminist Media Histories, Vol. 3 No. 3, Summer 2017; (pp. 57-81) DOI: 10.1525/fmh.2017.3.3.57
Bonnie Ruberg
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Search for this author on this site
  • View author's works on this site

Citation Manager Formats

  • BibTeX
  • Bookends
  • EasyBib
  • EndNote (tagged)
  • EndNote 8 (xml)
  • Medlars
  • Mendeley
  • Papers
  • RefWorks Tagged
  • Ref Manager
  • RIS
  • Zotero
Request Permissions
Share
What Is Your Mother's Maiden Name?
A Feminist History of Online Security Questions
Bonnie Ruberg
Feminist Media Histories, Vol. 3 No. 3, Summer 2017; (pp. 57-81) DOI: 10.1525/fmh.2017.3.3.57
Bonnie Ruberg
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Search for this author on this site
  • View author's works on this site
del.icio.us logo Digg logo Reddit logo Technorati logo Twitter logo CiteULike logo Facebook logo Google logo Mendeley logo
View Full Page PDF
  • Tweet Widget
  • Facebook Like
  • Google Plus One

  • Top
  • Article
    • Abstract
    • METHODS, INTERLOCUTORS, AND INTERVENTIONS
    • ONLINE SECURITY QUESTIONS: A DIGITAL HISTORY
    • AUTHENTICATING IDENTITY THROUGH HETERONORMATIVITY
    • SECURITY QUESTIONS: A PRE-DIGITAL HISTORY
    • WHAT IS YOUR MOTHER's MAIDEN NAME?
    • GENDER AND DIGITAL SUBJECTHOOD
    • NOTES
  • Figures & Data
  • Info & Metrics
  • PDF

Related Articles

Cited By...

Similar Articles

FIND US Facebook Account LinkRSS Feeds LinkTwitter Account LinkLinkedin Account LinkYoutube Account LinkEmail Link

Customer Service

  • Reprints and Permissions
  • Contact

UC Press

  • About UC Press

Navigate

  • Home
  • About
  • Submit
  • Editorial
  • Contact

Content

  • Current Issue
  • All Content

Info For

  • Librarians
  • Authors
  • Subscriptions and Single Issues

Copyright © 2019 by the Regents of the University of California  Privacy   Accessibility