The kingdom of antique televisions: Reparability, masculinity, and the afterlives of Socialist electronics

Abstract

A small but committed community of Czech hobbyists maintains a large collection of socialist-era domestic appliances, including televisions, radios, refrigerators, and washing machines, repairing them and displaying them in informal exhibits. This article explores the history of these objects, how they came to be in the hands of collectors, and the role they played in mediating the late socialist Czechoslovak gender culture. It argues that socialist appliances are uniquely well suited to repair and renovation because they were produced in an environment without a culture of planned obsolescence, a profit motive, or a high expectation of innovation. Furthermore, because socialist appliances need regular repair and maintenance, which was often done by men, many men had intimate practical knowledge of even the most feminized machines (for example, vacuums and washing machines).