Oftentimes everyday objects in our environment have gendered implications that go unnoticed and unobserved. These objects may or may not have been designed with a specific gender statement in mind, however careful analysis can reveal a great deal about the gendered nature of a commonplace artifact. Such an object that I encounter in each day of my life at the Rochester Institute of Technology is a laboratory bench. This artifact, I feel, is a prime example of an everyday object that has unnoticed gender implications – about myself and my colleagues. This bench, located in the teaching laboratory room 1125 in the College of Science, is used to enable multiple students to simultaneously carry out a single experiment – individually or in groups – for educational purposes. As a result of my frequent encounters with this lab bench I have come to the conclusion that this artifact on the RIT campus is inherently gendered in both its design and its use. This gender, I have determined, is male, and the effects of the bench’s gendered state need to be explored
