Intimacy Threats and Intersubjective Users
Telephone Training Films, 1927-1962
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 3020261 |
|---|---|
| Authors | D T Scott (0000-0002-3682-0591, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2011 |
| Volume | 63 |
| Issue | 3 |
| Pages | 487-507 |
| Publication date | 2011-09-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | American Quarterly (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0003-0678 • E-ISSN: 1080-6490 |
| Publisher | Project MUSE (PUBLISHER • US) |
| DOI | 10.1353/aq.2011.0043 |
| OpenAlex | W2095568221 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 7 |
| References cited | 16 |
Drawing on approaches from sound studies, this essay explores a historical role of a sound technology, telephony, in assessing desirable people, especially ideal and sanctioned consumers, as conveyed by seven short instructional films from the 1920s to the 1960s. After examining how telephony is represented visually and aurally, I argue that the essence of telephony's sonic experience-intimate intersubjectivity-is largely missing from these depictions. These depictions contribute to constitutive discourses of telephone usership; they help define a proper or sound telephone user and ideal telephonic practices. Yet such discourses are also entangled with other flows of social meaning-making and power relations. In mapping the contours of good and bad users, telephone training films harness social stereotypes pertaining to gender, age, and race, imbuing seemingly neutral technological practices with hierarchical power relations of different social categories. This suggests what might be the specific threat from intersubjectivity: empathy. I conclude with a methodological postscript
Epistemology · Ideal (ethics · Intersubjectivity · Meaning (existential · Power (physics · Social science · Sociology · Telecommunications · Telephony · Computer Science · Music History and Culture · Psychology · Radio, Podcasts, and Digital Media · Social Psychology · Theater, Performance, and Music History
The Social impact of the telephone
The telephone book
The Long Revolution
America Calling
New Media, Old Media
The Cultural Politics of Emotion
Bringing It All Back Home
Escaping the Sentence
Reaching out to touch someone
Heard over the phone
Viewers Like You
"Slow and Low Progress," or Why American Studies Should Do Technology
Madness and Civilization
Losing our cool
| Unique citing works | 7 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 0,58 |
| Citation span | 2014 - 2026 (13) |
| Citation velocity | current |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 7 |