Machines and Masculine Subjectivity

Abstract

This article draws on anthropological work among two groups of technical specialists, mechanics in Malaysia and engineers in Sweden. From a cross-cultural perspective, it focuses on and critically examines ways in which masculine bonds are mediated and communicated through interactions with machines, in particular, motorbikes and cars. In these different social settings, technologies can be understood as means of an embodied communication for forming homosocial bonds. These masculine practices continuously exclude women and perpetuate highly genderized societal spheres where men form communities based on passion for machines. Such passion involves an anthropomorphization of the man-machine relationship in which the machines are transformed into subjects in what might be termed a heterosexual, masculine, technical sociability and subjectivity.