Bodies, Machines, and Male Power by M. Carme Alemany Gomez

I chose to write my reflection paper on reading number twenty-two â€Å"Bodies, Machines, and Male Power.† This chapter is written by M. Carme Alemany Gomez. This article talks about washing machines, and how most people only think the value of a washing machine is cleanliness. This article shows that there are diverse ways in which how gender and class, affect the design, operation, and construction of washing machines in Spain. Also how technology reinforced these relationships. They talk about the process of washing clothes when males designed the machines. Women had to learn the very movements that she must do repeatedly while using the machine. If women were given a voice during the beginning stages perhaps the technology would have been designed differently. When someone is designing or building a technology, they make decisions about some details that affect the users. As we all know the washing machine has been around for quite some time. The models we see today have taken at least 40 years of work and changes to get to where they are today. This study is approached by three theories they expected to see class and gender relations in the life of a machine. Second they drew off a Chinese tradition of thought. Third gender relations were saw as â€Å"a set of power relationships that not only involve the construction of values, but also constitute a process of bodily submission, as evidence in postures, gestures and movements† (Gomez Pg. 390). According to the most recent