“I’m No Athlete [but] I Can Make This Thing Dance!”—Men’s Pleasures in Technology

Abstract

The pleasures experienced by boys and men who work and play closely with technology have important implications for both gender and technology. This article presents empirical evidence on the topic from two studies: one of hobbyist “robot builders” who build machines for the U.K. television program Robot Wars (Kleif), the other of professional software developers working in a large U.S. corporation (Faulkner). In spite of the obvious differences between these two groups, they experience strikingly similar pleasures—in creating technologies, in their skills and knowledge, and in their intimacy and comfort with technology. The authors discuss available gender-based analyses of men’s pleasures in technology, drawing on the empirical material to both challenge and extend these analyses. The authors suggest, tentatively, that technology is a gender-authentic and gender-available avenue for those men who particularly crave certainty because technology appears more certain, easier to understand, and easier to master than other worlds they inhabit.