‘Turn it down!’ She Shrieked: Gender, Domestic Space, and High Fidelity, 1948–59 Cover Image

„Halkítsd le!” – üvöltötte: nemek, otthon és a hifi, 1948–1959
‘Turn it down!’ She Shrieked: Gender, Domestic Space, and High Fidelity, 1948–59

Author(s): Keir Keightley
Subject(s): Cultural Essay, Political Essay, Societal Essay
Published by: Replika Alapítvány
Keywords: hi-fi; high fidelity; domestic; space; gender; music; magazine; caricature; technology; audio

Summary/Abstract: The study examines articles, caricatures and readers’ letters in popular US magazines in relation to the widespread rise in popularity of hi-fi audio equipment in the 1950s exploring the discourse that infused the new technology with gendered meanings. Thus the technology, which according to its technical function (the mere tool of music consumption) is gender-neutral, became one of the sites of spousal conflict for the shaping of and control over domestic space in American middle class households. According to the author, men losing their autonomous spaces in the ever more confined suburban homes employed the hi-fi to reclaim personal space.

  • Issue Year: 2005
  • Issue No: 49-50
  • Page Range: 55-85
  • Page Count: 31
  • Language: Hungarian