Domesticity
by
In media, domesticity is everywhere. Media present a vision of being happy and settled in the home, but also dysfunctional families and estrangement from the home. Domestic life has been part of media history from the very beginning. One of the first films ever made was an actuality of the Lumière family, parents feeding the baby (1895), perhaps the first filmed record of domestic life. Throughout media history, domesticity has been a site for examining and challenging identities. Much of media’s wrestling with identity politics—gender, sexuality, class, race, and ethnicity—often takes place in the realm of domesticity. Domesticity is also an industrial force, an economic pillar of the media industries connecting audiences to programming and markets. Radios and television sets, the means of delivery, have often been tied to domesticity through design and placement in the home—from the bulky corner radio with a single speaker to the television console integrated into living room furniture, handheld radios and portable televisions, and the home theater with surround sound, big screens, and comfy chairs. Consumer product designers consider the placement and function of media in the home and seek to integrate receivers into a family’s leisure life. As a textual element of storytelling,...
This essay may be found on page 62 of the printed volume.