The liberating washing machine?
A spanish designer created a washing machine to even out the task of who does the
laundry.
Here is video of the washing macine and a news article about it
However, despite the fact that it does raise the issue of gender and house hold chores, does it really solve the problem. We will never escape the normalized gender relationships by having a given technology address them. Sure, it does address such problems, but sometimes, that is as far as it goes. Further changes don't seem to occur.
As with eating habits, instead of people changing their diet to prevent them from suffering from acid reflux, upset stomache, diarrhea (yes, the entire pepto bismol theme song) companies just create "technological" products to ease consumers' symptoms. So my question is, with the washing machine in mind, are we really solving problems when we approach them through the creation of technological products or are we just putting off the problem?
What's wrong with good old fashioned advertising(brainwashing)/social engineering to "change" social practices? (i'm bound to get criticized for saying this, but oh well)