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Mechanical Brides: Women and Machines from Home to Office
During the 20th century, the marketing of domestic appliances and office machines has been directed primarily toward women. Mechanical Brides examines this phenomenon through extensive graphics (advertisements, catalog pages, photographs) and analytical text.
64 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1996
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
January 29, 2016
A mildly interesting book, the photos and captions were the best part.
Instead of really discussing the evolution/effect of the growth of these technologies in detail, it turned into more of a listing of what they were and how they changed with a little talk about how they influenced and were influenced by women and how they were used by them. That seemed to be left to the photos and captions as mentioned above. The adds from out past are very telling.
Instead of really discussing the evolution/effect of the growth of these technologies in detail, it turned into more of a listing of what they were and how they changed with a little talk about how they influenced and were influenced by women and how they were used by them. That seemed to be left to the photos and captions as mentioned above. The adds from out past are very telling.
March 4, 2023
A short and easy read. Good for if you are trying to get into reading nonfiction
June 29, 2011
Sad and depressing.
While I was interested to read such an interesting collection of the bizarre way women's relationships to mechanical devices have been discussed in media, there were a couple of things I didn't appreciate. Like the mention of an historian's claim that women were not subjected to obscene phone calls until the elimination of the so-called 'party' phone line in the early 1960s. This bit of text, with no other elaboration, implies that telephone harassment of women is, you know, somehow the fault of the victims' desire for privacy, as opposed to the sickie perverts' desire to harass them. I wish the authors hadn't done that in a book with such an obvious feminist bent.
Some very bizarre moments in this book. Advertisers have done some damn strange things over the years to market machines to women, especially WRT home appliances. Page 23 of Mechanical Brides features an ad for a washing machine that claims something like 'Barring unusual circumstances, our machine will always work.' The unusual circumstances depicted in the ad? A woman tied up and gagged next to her washing machine. As if this were a perfectly normal occurrence, and an acceptable way to sell product.
I also noted, with sadness, at how much less adequate office and even home furnishings marketed to women, happen to be. Women's spaces and the furnishings that fill them are smaller and less attractive than those of their male counterparts--at one point, the book even mentions that the chairs made for female professionals are smaller because the manufacturers just assumed women would never need to stretch out in them.
While I was interested to read such an interesting collection of the bizarre way women's relationships to mechanical devices have been discussed in media, there were a couple of things I didn't appreciate. Like the mention of an historian's claim that women were not subjected to obscene phone calls until the elimination of the so-called 'party' phone line in the early 1960s. This bit of text, with no other elaboration, implies that telephone harassment of women is, you know, somehow the fault of the victims' desire for privacy, as opposed to the sickie perverts' desire to harass them. I wish the authors hadn't done that in a book with such an obvious feminist bent.
Some very bizarre moments in this book. Advertisers have done some damn strange things over the years to market machines to women, especially WRT home appliances. Page 23 of Mechanical Brides features an ad for a washing machine that claims something like 'Barring unusual circumstances, our machine will always work.' The unusual circumstances depicted in the ad? A woman tied up and gagged next to her washing machine. As if this were a perfectly normal occurrence, and an acceptable way to sell product.
I also noted, with sadness, at how much less adequate office and even home furnishings marketed to women, happen to be. Women's spaces and the furnishings that fill them are smaller and less attractive than those of their male counterparts--at one point, the book even mentions that the chairs made for female professionals are smaller because the manufacturers just assumed women would never need to stretch out in them.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews