james_davis_nicoll: (Default)
james_davis_nicoll ([personal profile] james_davis_nicoll) wrote2012-02-22 11:35 am

Washing machines: threat or menace?


[It] began to occur to me that the tech I was using was incredibly gendered. In the "male" sphere, of professional operations, offices, corporations, pop culture, businesses, the available technology was extremely high-level, better than anywhere I'd yet lived. In the "female" sphere, the home, domestic duties, daily chores, cleaning, heating, anything inside the walls of a house, it was on a level my grandmother would find familiar.


I had similar thoughts a while ago, which led to this.

Engines of Liberation by Jeremy Greenwood, Ananth Seshadri and Mehmet Yorukoglu1

I forgot the question I was going to ask: given the effect devices like washing machines arguably have on the ability of women to do stuff that isn't maintaining a household, why is the people currently waging war on women's reproductive rights have not gone after dish washers, vaccuum cleaners and washer/driers?

[identity profile] erikagillian.livejournal.com 2012-02-23 09:10 pm (UTC)(link)
Or the tools are a class thing that are just now getting addressed because it's ok to work with your hands now?