ABSTRACT
In the preface to Lewis W. Hine's remarkably beautiful photography book, he poetically speaks about men's characters as being formed within engines, airplanes and generators. Could that explain why so many men love their machines dearly, and why many men tenderly care about their cars, motorcycles, computers, boats and other technical artifacts? Do men have a special relationship to technology that women lack? Do men have an ability to create close and intimate relationships with machines that women lack? If women, according to certain feminist theories (Chodorow, 1978; Gilligan, 1982), are supposed to have a superior ability to create close and intimate personal relationships, do men get an outlet for their emotional needs in relation to machines?
