American Museum of the Moving Image

I really enjoyed our trip to the Museum of the Moving Image. I had never been before and the history of broadcasting is something that I am very interested in. For me the most interesting was the rise of television as a medium made to appeal to women. When we look at early personal radios they seem to appeal to a manly aesthetic. The large carved wooden boxes are cast as solid unmoving centerpieces in a living room where after the work day the family can gather round and be entertained and enlightened. Many of the early televisions, however were designed to be used by women. They were designed to look like washing machines and were sometimes portable so that women would be comfortable taking them around the house as they performed their work. Women were the ones at home all day so they were initially targeted as a primary audience. I believe in some ways this is still the case with television programming. The programs and advertising targeted at women are still broadcast during the day today, but I think what makes the early televisions so remarkable is their significance as one of the first media that was versatile enough to target women during the day and men in the evenings.