The Gender of Things

ISBN-13: 9781032459097 / Twarda / 2023 / 264 str.

Opis

The Gender of Things is a highly interdisciplinary book that explores the power relationship between gender and the material culture of technoscience, addressing a seemingly straightforward question: How does a thing—such as a spacesuit, a humanoid robot, or a surgical instrument—become a gendered object?

Recenzje

'This is a fascinating book on a completely original topic, the ways in which scientific and technological things, objects, processes, machines, techniques, come to acquire a gender in the context of their patriarchal (and feminist) uses. Things are made and used by us: how they are made and the ways in which they are used - by whom, with what effects – is a central but unexplored question in Science and Technology Studies. This collection brings new political and social perspectives and new questions to our understanding of what technological ‘things’ may become.'

- Elizabeth Grosz, Professor of Women's Studies and Literature, Duke University, USA

'Certain things, such as ships, have long been gendered but these were thought of as exceptions to the general rule of neutrality: a thing is an "it," not a "she" or a "he." This eye-opening book shows how widespread the gendering of things actually is — and not just the things of everyday life but the things of science. From the sealing wax and string of the laboratory to genealogical databases, The Gender of Things reveals the subtle and not-so-subtle ways that the things of science and technology can be made masculine or feminine.'

- Lorraine Daston, Director emerita, Max Planck Institute for the History of Science, Germany

Spis treści

Introduction: Gendering Things

Maria Rentetzi

Part 1: Things in/as Laboratories

Sealing Wax and String

Donald L. Opitz

Butter: Fat Lions and Dairy Girls

Anna Frasca-Rath

Gendered Images of Chromosomes

María Jesús Santesmases

Godofredo and Françoise Travel Around the World: Phantoms, Radioiodine Uptake Tests, and the IAEA’s Standardization Projects

Maria Rentetzi

The Tell-Tale Heart: Multiple Ontologies of the First Human Donor Heart

Annerose Böhrer and Larissa Pfaller

Colourful Minilabs: Cosmeceuticals at the Interface of Gender, Technology, and Knowledge Transfers

Milton Fernando Gonzalez Rodriguez

Part 2: Things as Artefacts

Gendered Mobility: Early Motor Scooting around 1920

Heike Weber

A Make-up Kit from the National Air and Space Museum

Eleanor S. Armstrong

The Fan: Gendered Bodily Communication at the Intersection of Salon Semiotics, Fashion, Political Campaigning, and Menopause Relief

Annette Keilhauer

Gendering the Boundary Object: "Sophia the Robot" as Cyborg-Woman, Fashionista, Citizen, and Imagination

Roger A. Søraa and Nienke Bruijning

Animating Machines, Alienating Women: Siri and Alexa as Affective Linguistic Labourers

Siri Lamoureaux and Alexa Hagerty

Part 3: Things as Sites of Power

Dangerous Erections: Gender, Race, and the Engineering of Trump’s Border Wall

Amy E. Slaton

Paternity and Pedigree: How Academic Genealogical Databases Become Gendered

Rebecca M. Herzig

Is the Scrum Board Feminine?

Stefan Sauer and Amelie Tihlarik

O autorze

Maria Rentetzi is Professor of Science, Technology, and Gender Studies at FAU Erlangen- Nurnberg, and an affiliate of the Max Planck Institute for History of Science, Berlin, Germany.