Gender and the Domestication of Wireless Technology in 1920s Pulp Fiction

Abstract

The history of radio broadcasting in the 1920s is associated with a domestication narrative along gendered and institutional lines. A predominantly male and homosocial activity of amateur wireless operation was countered by images of families, heterosexual couples, and mixed groups listening together, accompanied by the development of content aimed specifically at women and children. Framing this gendered shift was institutional growth, as experiments in wireless telephony were sidelined by corporate organization of broadcast content and attempted regulation of listening habits. Yet the domestication of radio additionally saw negotiations around both gender identity and the home as a site for experimenting bodies. Instead of viewing domestication as a narrative in which given gender roles are mobilized around technological change in the home, I will examine domestication as an opportunity for gendered bodies to test and reconfigure, or reaffirm, their orientation to each other and to their surroundings.