The Good Place and Big Mouth Show the Dangers of Treating Tech Like Women

to apps—a propensity toward anthropomorphism that’s understandable but in an ideal world would be constantly challenged. This context helps explain why the depictions of feminized tech on the most recent season offeel so innovative. Both series feature technology that initially embodies female tropes—the toxic girlfriend and the agreeable secretary, respectively—but soon expose the limitations, if not the absurdities, of gendering decidedly nonhuman entities.

Playing the Yoko in the show’s central best-friendship, Cellsea quickly separates Nick from Andrew by validating her user’s dumbest impulses, encouraging him to create embarrassing viral content , and hooking him on a never-ending series of mindless distractions . Later, she gets Nick to convince Andrew to take them on an illegal joyride, resulting in a smashed garage.

Plenty of film noir vamps chewed up and spit out male dopes, but none as dopey as Nick, who’s strung along by the promise that his friends will finally see that Wetzel’s Pretzels follows him on Instagram.flings the blame for a man’s downfall, which has historically fallen on women, back at Nick for his willful naiveté. The seemingly endless randomness with which Cellsea keeps him scrolling for hours also suggests a force more powerful than even romantic obsession.

Janet’s power is almost godlike, her actions like something out of Greek tragedy, and yet she’s still being likened to aJanet knows everything in the universe and has been created to use that knowledge to make users’ lives more convenient. Buthas been careful to suggest the profound unknowability of Janet’s powers, even as it fills in her background.

The character that became Janet was initially envisioned without a specific gender, and Siri was originally. In launching a female helpmate, Apple, like the rest of the tech industry, decided to oblige customers where they are instead of inspiring them to, well, think different.

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