Video Playtime »

The 1980s saw an explosion in the use of the VCR, arguably the most significant new form of home entertainment technology since television.

In Video Playtime Ann Gray investigates what women felt about the VCR, both in terms of the ways these entertainment facilities were used within their households, and what kind of programs and films they themselves particularly enjoyed. The ages, social, economic, and family circumstances of the women differ, but the majority of them live with a male partner. The book draws heavily on verbatim dialogue to provide a rich description of different types of household micro-cultures, and to give readers more direct access to the women themselves and the ways in which they accounted for their own experience.

Video Playtime addresses questions of domestic technology as well as those of taste and cultural preference, particularly in relation to class, exploring the dynamics of power within existing social and cultural relations.