Insufferable Tools
Feminism Against Big Tech

Sarah Sharma (Author)

9781478033646

Hardback, published 21 April 2026

222 pages, 33 illustrations
22.9 x 15.2 x 1.5 cm, 0.472 kg

"Sarah Sharma artfully weaves a story about the ways that Big Tech patriarchs have a coherent media theory – one that makes tools out of you and me – and lays the groundwork for a countertheory to break that logic. Let us all aspire to be Broken Machines in a land of toxic masculine machinations." – Alex Hanna, Co-author, The AI Con

"In the aptly titled and elegantly written Insufferable Tools, Sarah Sharma, with great brilliance and incisive wit, urges us to consider the stark reality of the connection between gender and technology, insisting on how these domains are mutually constitutive. This is an absolute must-read, not only for those who are interested in gender and technologies, but indeed all of us who live our lives as 'tools' of patriarchal techno-logic." – Sarah Banet-Weiser, Walter H. Annenberg Dean and Lauren Berlant Professor of Communication, Annenberg School for Communication, University of Pennsylvania



"A sustained and wonderful piece of feminist technoscience writing. . . . A stimulating, fun and inspiring read."—Gillian Rose, Visual/Method/Culture

In a world seemingly run by the whims and power plays of Musks and Zucks, Insufferable Tools cuts to the core of modern technology’s gendered politics. Sarah Sharma challenges the idea that the Big Tech broligarchs are neutral utilitarians who view technology as mere tools. She shows instead how these tech giants have turned the internet, and, increasingly, “real life” into a set of environments which they cultivate and manipulate to wield the real tools: us, the users. Sharma critiques a popular system of inclusion she calls “Big Tech Feminism” that attempts to incorporate and make useful people of color, queer people, and others who are seen as broken machines in the current gendered power structures. Deconstructing Big Tech’s patriarchal deployment of media theory to gain and maintain power, Sharma proposes a feminist techno-politics that can forge new futures free from the grip of the truly insufferable tools.

Introduction: “
The Sex Organs of the Machine World”
1
1. The Woman in Tech: A Useful Device 31
2. The Tools in Mommy’
s Basement 66
3. And the Machine World Will Deliver Him His Wealth 99
4. Broken Machines: Toward a Feminist Technological Determinism 123
Conclusion. A Techno-Feminist End to the Insufferable Tool 151
Acknowledgments 157
Notes 161
Bibliography 171
Index 205