The Triangle

Issue date: 4/9/04 Section: Sci-Tech

Electric cars, when advertised in the media, are typically marketed to women.

You know, I never did think of technology in this regard - and I guess not even you have - until I took a history class. I took History of Technology in the fall term, not because I wanted to, but because I had to. I was sort of disappointed, as I had to take a course in a subject that I have always hated. Being from India, I was asking myself the reason to study the history of a foreign country. But, to my surprise, as I mentioned earlier, it was a class about the History of Technology; about how things were invented, about how certain stereotypes came into existence. Our professor, David Munns, was excellent in bringing up arguments about things that have shaped today's technology. The discussion that prevailed throughout the course was about the genderizing of technology.

Come to think of it, I never thought of technology as having a gender, and I bet neither have you unless you were in that class with me or in another class that would have more or less discussed the same thing. The fact is that technology itself is not gendered. It is just that some visionary and financially established entrepreneurs came about with this ingenious idea of having different kinds of technology for the two sexes.
The portrayal of the technology results in such classification. The perception of the makers of different products in this regard was accepted by people, and these categories were formed. This economically-driven motive has succeeded and created totally different markets pertaining only to one particular gender. When commercial automobiles came about, they were of two types: the fuel car and the electric car. If you look at the advertisements during those times, you'd see that an electric car always had a female driving it. It was simply to imply that electric cars are for females. The posters portrayed a woman that was free from her world of responsibilities when she drove the car.
The fuel car advertisements had males. The fuel car was obviously more powerful than the electric car, and it never did match up to its speed. But the electric car was marketed as the car for women. One might think about it as a means to imply that men are the dominant gender. But, as long as the cars were sold, one could care less. Although now everyone drives and is shown to drive any car, times were different then. But this does not mean that genderizing stopped then and there - it just evolved. New and different ideas of genderizing are being thought of even today. Let's face it, women are not that technology savvy or engaged. Therefore, in order to extend their markets, companies try to genderize technology.

However, there are always products that are neither considered masculine or feminine. The perfect example is the mobile phone. It is a technological invention used by everyone. But here another dimension of classification was thought of and implemented - the color of your mobile phone, or for that matter, the color of anything you own or wear. Colors have been classified as masculine and feminine. Somehow, by some inexplainable means, it has been embedded into our minds that the color pink is a feminine color. Males are not supposed to and should never have this color for their mobile phone or even clothing. It is strange, but something to think about. However, now there are mobile phones especially made for women, and a male having one of those might not be considered "straight." What do you think?

Amar Maniar is a junior majoring in electrical engineering.

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