Sex of Things – An exploration of Bill Brown’s things through the lens of gender

Bill Brown's ‘Thing Theory' (2001) introduces the radical idea of the difference between ‘objects' and ‘things'. For Brown an object is an entity which is functional and therefore obedient and docile drawing no significant attention from the user. A thing on the other hand is a recalcitrant object who has shed its utilitarian property and specifically by becoming non-functional makes its presence felt in the user's /onlooker's consciousness. This chapter uses Brown's ‘Thing Theory' (2001) as a tool to demonstrate that objects can be explored as both gendered and gender-ambivalent entities following their anthropomorphisation — a mass scale phenomenon Brown himself emphasises. This chapter argues that through the process of humanisation and subsequent internalisation objects can impact human perception of themselves in lasting and therefore powerful ways.