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Paper short abstract:

The paper juxtaposes mainstream marketing smart scenarios with literary and visual representations that subvert both the former's male-centric user perspective and clichéd feminine caregiving identity. Such depictions are conveyed through the ambivalent category of the 'wicked vestal'.

Paper long abstract:

Building up momentum, the smart home concept is gradually resembling a battleground of disparate and oftentimes mutually exclusive discourses. What seems to be at stake in this struggle, apart from the fulfilment of individual academic aspirations and commercial interests, is the acquisition of symbolic resources. These include the capacity to mold the collective imagination, foster certain values at the expense of others, and reinforce or disrupt established power dynamics. The big tech companies have over the years pushed the narrative of the smart home as the fulfilment of individualistic and hedonistic ideals, at times complemented with a neoliberal affirmation of productivity. These narratives, anchored in technophilic and progress-fetishizing Western Enlightenment thought, have been, as shown by feminist technology scholars, infused with androcentricity and biased towards the reaffirmation of conventional gender roles.

Drawing on critical cultural research, the paper juxtaposes mainstream marketing smart scenarios with literary and visual representations that subvert both the former's male-centric user perspective and clichéd feminine caregiving identity. Such depictions are conveyed through the ambivalent category of the 'wicked vestal', encompassing the instances of deviant (Margaux) and excessive (Mother of Invention) protectiveness of the smart home as well as the hybrid melding of the female body and mind with domestic technology (Not to be Known). The paper highlights the ways in which unorthodox imaginaries renegotiate modalities of gendered agency. It discusses various plot devices, such as positioning female characters as chief adopters of smart technologies and rendering feminized smart houses autonomous, self-centered agents.