Mobile sexism?

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LWTJvjLbPEc]

Increasingly, smartphones have become an important way that we keep connected to the digital world. So, what does it mean when a smartphone is labeled as a “female” phone?

Granted, HTC’s new smartphone, called Rhyme (available on Verizon), is never billed explicitly as a “female” phone. Yet, the online chatter surrounding the device suggests that this is a “phone for women“.  So, what is it about this device that marks it as feminine?  Well, for one, it is purple.  As Joe Wilcox points out, adding color in an effort to attract female consumers is not a new marketing tactic.  Furthermore, it has a light-up charm that pulsates when you receive a phone call or a message. Interestingly, when this charm is mentioned, it is associated with “handbags” and “purses” as seen here and here.  It seems clear that the marketeers at HTC intended the Rhyme for women.

Let me quote Sarah Perez: “Groan.”

Again, HTC seems to go to great lengths not to say that this is a phone targeted at women.  Yet, the charade is thinly veiled.  I agree with Sarah Perez’s article that this is the latest example of plain-and-simple sexism rearing its ugly head; this time it’s a smartphone.

Yet, something doesn’t feel quite right.  I wonder whose sexism does this represent?  In other words, is this a First World type of sexism with its conspicuous consumption and outdated male/female encodings? Or, is this another type of sexism facilitated by a digital space? I’m not trying to say that because it gets you online, its sexism is necessarily novel. Rather, discrimination depends on a whole hosts of beliefs and narratives that are grounded in specific cultures and societies. In a digital culture, what grounds it? Then again, don’t smartphones represent a sort of “bridging device?” That is, on one hand it’s a telephone — used for pretty much the same telephony purposes that we’ve been using it for the past generations.  On the other hand, it’s an Internet connected device — clearly, much more contemporary. Does this bridging offer a medium for those older sexist beliefs to move into the digital? Again, whose sexism?

So, I wonder: Is this just sexist narratives articulated onto the digital world? Or is this something else?

Comments are closed.