Video Playtime: The Gendering of a Leisure Technology (Comedia) Book

In Video Playtime Ann Gray investigates the birth of the VCR and its effects on women's lives both in terms of the ways these entertainment facilities were used within their households and what kind of programs and films they themselves particularly enjoyed. The ages, social, economic and family circumstances of the women differ, but the majority of them live with a male partner. The book draws heavily on verbatim dialogue to provide rich descriptions of different types of household micro-cultures, and to give readers direct access to the women themselves and the ways in thich they account for their own experience. Video Playtime addresses questions of domestic technology as well as those of taste and cultural preference, particularly with reference to issues of class, and power dynamics within existing social and cultural relations.Read More