Patriarchal Machines and Masculine Embodiment

Abstract

Hegemonic masculinity is a concept that has been of central concern in gender research on different masculinities. However, with the exception of the pioneering work of Wajcman, it has not been widely discussed in relation to studies of science and technology. In this article, which mainly draws on anthropological fieldwork among car and motor mechanics in Penang, Malaysia, a certain form of hegemonic masculinity, based on an intimate embodied interaction with machines, is being discussed. Such a masculinity is furthermore founded on an anthropomorphization of the man-machine relationship in which the machines are transformed into subjects in what might be termed a masculine technical sociability. In such a sociability, machines are understood as a means of a performative and embodied communication enabling masculine homosocial bonding linkages.

Swedish Schools and Gender Equality in the 1970s

“…At the beginning of the 1970s Volvo and Saab-Scania were two of the biggest companies in Sweden (Stenlås, 2008). On the one hand, the female car mechanic may seem to be an odd figure to promote, considering cars and car mechanics being highly associated with masculinity (Mellström, 2002;. On the other hand, because of the strong links to masculinity, this vocation was put forward.…”

Skills in motion: boys' trail motorbiking activities as transitions into working-class masculinity in a post-industrial locale

“…These spontaneous comments and accounts elicited in formal interviews provided glimpses into hidden worlds relating to some boys' outof-school activities that drew attention to the specificities of the local landscape, male networks and motorbikes. Riding as well as building, fixing and maintaining motorbikes are activities that involve men and machines in practices that potentially sustained and reproduce masculine identities (Connell, 1995;Mellströ m, 2002;Wajcman, 1991).…”

Constructing Intimacy: Technology, Family and Gender in East Asia

“…Lim and Matsuda's informants highlight the transmission of technical skills, but also their apprenticeship in modes of perception and norms of communicative etiquette. STS scholars have begun to examine these processes of skill transmission in research on apprenticeship or on masculinities (Horowitz 2001;Mellström 2002), and in both cases intimacy and the concrete details of skill acquisition go hand in hand. Rich as these new studies are, they would benefit by engaging more closely with insights and methods developed by anthropologists of technology such as Lemonnier (1992), Pfaffenberger (2001) or Ingold (2000).…”