Video in the Home – A critical discussion of “Behind closed

Video in the Home – A critical discussion of “Behind closed doors: video recorders in the home” pp327-336 Ann Gray (1987) Media studies a Reader This article outlines the role of gender in authority and use of home technology, specifically the home video recorder, or VCR. In the economic climate of the late eighties Gray argues that the TV and VCR are a very important part of family entertainment due to high prices of going out …

…become a social spectator hybrid, and in the present day many of the social contexts seem less relevant than in the late 1980’s, at the time the article was written. There is a wide choice of viewing due to the VCR, however Gray rightly states that there is much left to be addressed in understanding the female’s viewing position in the typical nuclear family. This view must be stressed even more today than in 1987.