Error loading page.
Try refreshing the page. If that doesn't work, there may be a network issue, and you can use our self test page to see what's preventing the page from loading.
Learn more about possible network issues or contact support for more help.
Advanced
Title details for The Smart Wife by Yolande Strengers - Available

The Smart Wife

by Yolande Strengers
Jenny Kennedy
ebook
Read a sample Read a sample
A bold dive into the problematic development (and developers) of "smart wives"—feminized digital assistants who are friendly, sometimes flirty, docile, efficient, occasionally glitchy, and perpetually available.
Meet the Smart Wife—at your service, an eclectic collection of feminized AI, robotic, and smart devices. This digital assistant is friendly and sometimes flirty, docile and efficient, occasionally glitchy but perpetually available. She might go by Siri, or Alexa, or inhabit Google Home. She can keep us company, order groceries, vacuum the floor, turn out the lights. A Japanese digital voice assistant—a virtual anime hologram named Hikari Azuma—sends her "master" helpful messages during the day; an American sexbot named Roxxxy takes on other kinds of household chores. In The Smart Wife, Yolande Strengers and Jenny Kennedy examine the emergence of digital devices that carry out "wifework"—domestic responsibilities that have traditionally fallen to (human) wives. They show that the principal prototype for these virtual helpers—designed in male-dominated industries—is the 1950s housewife: white, middle class, heteronormative, and nurturing, with a spick-and-span home. It's time, they say, to give the Smart Wife a reboot.
Expand title description text
Publisher: MIT Press

OverDrive Read

  • ISBN: 9780262360043
  • Release date: September 1, 2020

EPUB ebook

  • ISBN: 9780262360043
  • File size: 2348 KB
  • Release date: September 1, 2020

Formats

OverDrive Read
EPUB ebook

subjects

Computer Technology Sociology Women's Studies Nonfiction

Languages

English

A bold dive into the problematic development (and developers) of "smart wives"—feminized digital assistants who are friendly, sometimes flirty, docile, efficient, occasionally glitchy, and perpetually available.
Meet the Smart Wife—at your service, an eclectic collection of feminized AI, robotic, and smart devices. This digital assistant is friendly and sometimes flirty, docile and efficient, occasionally glitchy but perpetually available. She might go by Siri, or Alexa, or inhabit Google Home. She can keep us company, order groceries, vacuum the floor, turn out the lights. A Japanese digital voice assistant—a virtual anime hologram named Hikari Azuma—sends her "master" helpful messages during the day; an American sexbot named Roxxxy takes on other kinds of household chores. In The Smart Wife, Yolande Strengers and Jenny Kennedy examine the emergence of digital devices that carry out "wifework"—domestic responsibilities that have traditionally fallen to (human) wives. They show that the principal prototype for these virtual helpers—designed in male-dominated industries—is the 1950s housewife: white, middle class, heteronormative, and nurturing, with a spick-and-span home. It's time, they say, to give the Smart Wife a reboot.
Expand title description text
Computer Technology Sociology Women's Studies Nonfiction