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The Smart Wife: Why Siri, Alexa, and Other Smart Home Devices Need a Feminist Reboot

1 in stock

Firm sale: non returnable item
SKU 9780262542791 Categories ,
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The life and times of the Smart Wife--feminized digital assistants who are friendly and sometimes flirty, occasionally glitchy but perpetually available.

Meet the Smart Wife--at your service, an eclectic collection of feminized AI, robotic, and smart devices. Thi...

£17.99

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Description

Product ID:9780262542791
Product Form:Paperback / softback
Country of Manufacture:GB
Title:The Smart Wife
Subtitle:Why Siri, Alexa, and Other Smart Home Devices Need a Feminist Reboot
Authors:Author: Jenny Kennedy, Yolande Strengers
Page Count:320
Subjects:Gender studies: women and girls, Gender studies: women
Description:Select Guide Rating
The life and times of the Smart Wife--feminized digital assistants who are friendly and sometimes flirty, occasionally glitchy but 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.

What''s wrong with preferring domestic assistants with feminine personalities? We like our assistants to conform to gender stereotypes--so what? For one thing, Strengers and Kennedy remind us, the design of gendered devices re-inscribes those outdated and unfounded stereotypes. Advanced technology is taking us backwards on gender equity. Strengers and Kennedy offer a Smart Wife "manifesta," proposing a rebooted Smart Wife that would promote a revaluing of femininity in society in all her glorious diversity.
Imprint Name:MIT Press
Publisher Name:MIT Press Ltd
Country of Publication:GB
Publishing Date:2021-08-31