The life and times of the Smart Wife--feminized digital assistants who are friendly and sometimes flirty, occasionally glitchy but perpetually available.
Jenny Kennedy is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the School of Media and Communication at RMIT University, Melbourne..
About author(s): Yolande Strengers is Associate Professor of Digital Technology and Society in the Emerging Technologies Research Lab at Monash University, Melbourne.
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.
Advanced technology is taking us backwards on gender equity.
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 For one thing, Strengers and Kennedy remind us, the design of gendered Devices re-inscribes those outdated and unfounded stereotypes.
It\'s time, they say, to give the Smart Wife a reboot.
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.
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.
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.
She can keep us company, order groceries, vacuum the floor, turn out the lights.
She might go by Siri, or Alexa, or inhabit Google Home.
This digital assistant is friendly and sometimes flirty, docile and efficient, occasionally glitchy but perpetually available.
Meet the Smart Wife--at your service, an eclectic collection of feminized AI, robotic, and Smart devices.
The life and times of the Smart Wife--feminized digital assistants who are friendly and sometimes flirty, occasionally glitchy but perpetually available
