Loading...
Start Date
24-6-2022 12:00 AM
End Date
24-6-2022 12:00 AM
Abstract
In 1987, 227 and Family Ties both aired episodes named “Matchmaker(s).” Both episodes focus on the possibilities and limitations of electronically facilitated matchmaking. In 227, Rose dresses up and puts on an aloof act for her video date tape. Although she and her match like each other, he too has put on various airs to seem more appealing. In Family Ties, Alex’s attempts to use a computer program to find his sister Mallory a date among eligible men on his college campus is ultimately a failure—despite the fact that Mallory and her date seem perfectly paired on paper. Through an analysis of these narratives, I explore how gendered and raced expectations of romantic love, sex, and dating are reproduced through and in tension with emerging consumer electronics.
Hyperbolic and hyper masculine case studies like Videodrome or Neuromancer are often synonymous with the electronic era. In keeping with the theme of reinvention, this paper urges us to re-consider how popular television targeted toward women, families, and people of colour was a significant, albeit overlooked, forum for discussions about everyday and even mundane relationships with emerging technology during the 1980s. Drawing on Aubrey Anable, Mar Hicks, Ruha Benjamin, and Laine Nooney, I position these episodes as extensions of earlier intersections between technology and dating culture. Then, I argue that these episodes offer primary source perspectives for the ongoing ways that technology plays a role in our everyday intimate encounters.
Matchmaker: Emerging Technology and 1980s Narrative Television
In 1987, 227 and Family Ties both aired episodes named “Matchmaker(s).” Both episodes focus on the possibilities and limitations of electronically facilitated matchmaking. In 227, Rose dresses up and puts on an aloof act for her video date tape. Although she and her match like each other, he too has put on various airs to seem more appealing. In Family Ties, Alex’s attempts to use a computer program to find his sister Mallory a date among eligible men on his college campus is ultimately a failure—despite the fact that Mallory and her date seem perfectly paired on paper. Through an analysis of these narratives, I explore how gendered and raced expectations of romantic love, sex, and dating are reproduced through and in tension with emerging consumer electronics.
Hyperbolic and hyper masculine case studies like Videodrome or Neuromancer are often synonymous with the electronic era. In keeping with the theme of reinvention, this paper urges us to re-consider how popular television targeted toward women, families, and people of colour was a significant, albeit overlooked, forum for discussions about everyday and even mundane relationships with emerging technology during the 1980s. Drawing on Aubrey Anable, Mar Hicks, Ruha Benjamin, and Laine Nooney, I position these episodes as extensions of earlier intersections between technology and dating culture. Then, I argue that these episodes offer primary source perspectives for the ongoing ways that technology plays a role in our everyday intimate encounters.
Bio
Myrna Moretti's research explores the role of popular women's culture in shaping ordinary attitudes toward emerging technology in the 1980s and 1990s. She has presented her work at SCMS, 4S, Film & History, and graduate student conferences in the US and Canada. Myrna is also a filmmaker with a focus on documentary and experimental video. She is currently one of the grad reps for SCMS' Media, Science, and Technology Studies Scholarly Interest Group. She holds an MA from the University of Toronto and a BFA from Ryerson University.