The cyborg figure is a common fixture in both science and science-fiction. The term, coined by Manfred E. Clynes and Nathan S. Kline in 1960, refers to an organism with enhanced functionality due to the incorporation of a mechanical component (Clynes and Kline, 27). The animal-machine hybrid was a figuration and embodiment of the modern era’s lust for technology as a means of pushing the human towards what was often militaristic and capitalist ideals. However, in her groundbreaking essay “A Cyborg Manifesto”, Donna Haraway appropriates the patriarchal cyborg figure for feminist purposes, drawing on its composited ontology as a model for female liberation. Her essay posits a psychological escape from the dualisms that hamper the female sense of self, through its account of boundary breakdowns and its rejection of totalized identity. This psychological escape becomes active politically when applied to challenge the authority of the physical acts of oppression where these dualisms often manifest. However, the manifesto’s inability to entirely account for cultural differentialism within feminism causes it to fall somewhat under Haraway’s goal of promoting the particular female self.
First published in 1985 as part of The Socialist Review and later updated in 1991 as part of her anthology of essays Simians, Cyborgs, and Women (the latter of which will be the version analyzed), Donna Haraway’s “A Cyborg Manifesto” constructs a feminist call to action by situating a myth of the
Mina Loy’s writing, “Feminist Manifesto”, is about feminism in the early 20th century. In this period, women were fighting for equality in their everyday life. Loy’s idea is that women should not try to be equal to man but to find a standard within themselves to live up to. This piece has modernism ideas as she is encouraging a change to society and women’s values. She repeatedly questions traditional values and beliefs about women’s roles in society. She was trying to make a historical change for all women in the 20th century. Loy says, “She abandons the suffragette movement’s central issue of equality and insists instead on an adversarial model of gender, claiming that women should not look to men for a standard of value but should find it
Marissa Meyer’s futuristic dystopian novel, Cinder, is set in an advanced society containing large divides between different groups of people including; cyborgs, humans, and Lunars. Cyborgs are often looked down upon as inhuman machines that are held to high expectations though, the majority of cyborgs are partially human. The antagonist, Cinder, is a cyborg who struggles with these divides between people. Because of this, Cinder feels the need to hide her Cyborg self and constantly work to appease others in order to be accepted. One theme this story suggests is “ In a society that can be very demanding, people need to learn to stop trying to please others, live for themselves, and do what they believe is right and they will benefit from their actions.” This theme is shown throughout the story in a series of critical scenes and also portrayed using author’s craft.
One of the main aspects of the feminist movement is breaking away from society’s limits and expectations. Before Edna could break free, she first had to experience an awakening. In her awakening, she had to realize the role of women in the universe, the role that society created for women, “…beginning to realize her position in the universe as a human being…” (Chopin 17).
As statistics show, science fiction has long been a genre produced and consumed by nerdy, middle aged, white men, with little to no social skills. The content of science fiction has typically revolved around intergalactic interaction and male dominated adventure and exploration, most certainly do not imagine that science fiction can be used to write about feminist thoughts or ideas. However, this is exactly what Octavia Butler does in her short story “Speech Sounds.” Many scholars believe that feminist science fiction writers write toward a utopian society. Butler, however, tends to write more towards a confrontation with dystopia. A dystopian society, or anti-utopia, is a society
In 1963 there was the second wave of the women’s movement when Betty Friedan published her book The Feminine Mystique, which sole purpose was to point out the, “problem that has no name” (understanding feminism by peta Bowden). The context of the book described that women were being forced to live under their true
There are many companies in the world today that put an idea of this perfect female body into the heads of women. These images lead to a faulty standard men hold of women and their bodies and that women strive to become. Margaret Atwood addresses the issue of the way men view the female body by writing her essay in the viewpoints of a male so the reader can better understand how the expectation men have of the female body is unrealistic. First, she uses an allusive comparison to show the male expectation of the female body and how it is objectified as if it were a doll that comes with accessories. Next, she uses an anecdote with defamiliarization to show how the way the father views a Barbie doll and the way it portrays the female body to young girls is hypocritical. Lastly, Margaret Atwood uses insidious diction to talk about how men not only view the female body as a product but how they also use the female body as a product which can be sold amongst businessmen. In The Female Body, Margaret Atwood uses many rhetorical devices to convey how the female body is viewed through the eyes of men.
The most recent and current third wave of feminism began in the mid-90’s and has destabilized many past constructs including “universal womanhood,” gender, body, hetreronormativity, and sexuality. A peculiar and important point of the latest wave that
In Female Chauvinist Pigs, Ariel Levy attempts to reconcile her personal views of feminism with its portrayal in popular culture. In order to challenge what she sees as a co-opted version of feminism, Levy raises the question of authenticity of “sex-positive feminism” (Levy, 63) on two levels: by “selling out” in terms of the body and in terms of our patriarchal culture. In order to restore a binary relationship between feminism and non-feminism, Levy recasts this sex positive feminism as a new form of (fe)male chauvinism.
The physical body has been seen as many things both positive and negative. It can be thought of as the temple which houses the soul or can be seen as entrapping, like a cage of flesh. More often it seems that the body, especially women’s bodies, are looked at in more complicated ways than the bodies of men. As I grew up, it began to feel more and more like my body, and the bodies of other women, did not actually belong to us like we believed. Through my Women’s Studies class I have gained more knowledge on the body as a political object. In this essay I will examine six different articles with the similar theme of women’s bodies, the expression of those bodies and how by using feminism as a political standpoint they gain power and ownership of their bodies.
Neuromancer is an amazingly complex novel. Being one of the first of its kind, Gibson tells a chilling tale of a world where computers, and a thing called " the matrix," become more "real" than reality. The story, set in the not-so-distant future, has our hero, Henry Dorsett Case, embarking on an adventure that stretches the limits of the reader's imagination. But even though Case is our main character, there are others with as much or more power and influence. Women play a significant role in aiding Case throughout his mission. Not only are they noteworthy, they hold most of the "power" and at the end, it is a woman who holds the final "key." By using the feminist approach to literary
“First wave” of feminism in 1920 advocated women’s suffrage, whereas the “Second wave” targets the societal issues that women in the 21st century are facing. Betty Friedan wrote The Feminists Mystique after World War II exposing female repression and later founded the National Organization for Women (NOW) which ignited the second wave of the feminist movement. Consequently, it became noticeable that women were in multiple wars, as a result branches of feminists were formed (i.e. Liberalist, Marxist, and Socialist). Misogyny’s evolution has its own significant role in the feminist movement, stirring conversations today that affect feminist ideologies. However, in order to fully comprehend what affects second wave feminism along with the tactics utilized by feminists, one must first become acquainted with the many forms.
Terminator and Bladerunner, portrayed cyborgs or cybernetic organisms as creatures of destruction. Are they really as horrible as the movies make them out to be? They can be more useful than perceived; it is necessary to first perfect the technology involved in creating and operating them. In this paper, I will describe how these cyborgs work and how they are portrayed in the movies. Furthermore, I will explain the helpful ways that they are expected to perform in the future.
Andy Clark, in Natural-Born Cyborgs, offers an extended argument that technology’s impact on and intertwining with ordinary biological human life is not to be feared, either psychologically or morally. Clark offers several key concepts towards his line of reasoning. Clark argues that a human being thinks and reasons based on the biological brain and body dynamically linked with the culture and technological tools transparently accessible to the human. This form of thinking and reasoning develops new "thinking systems" that which over time become second nature thoughts and reasons and are the basis of even newer "thinking systems." It is a repetitive cycle that continues forever being built upon previous systems.
Gender performativity is related to performance and shares elements with it, but it has no subject. She explains, “The action of gender requires a performance that is repeated. This repetition is at once a reenactment and reexperiencing of a set of meanings already socially established” (178). Performativity creates a fictional reality in which gender and its roles are determined according to a men/women binary distinction. According to her, the category of Women from which the feminist struggle arises is different from this political, hierarchical myth based on
In effect, it was this very labeling of the female as 'other' that "was the starting point for contemporary feminist theory" (Mascia-Lees & Sharpe, 2000:22). By labeling the female as 'other', the dominant patriarchal discourse of modernism retains its position as subject (2000:22). Feminism aims to reverse the power relations of such modernist binary arguments, allowing those labeled as 'other' the chance to claim the title of 'subject' (2000:23). Nevertheless, the fact remains that modernism is ultimately a patriarchal discourse, a discourse effective only in its entirety and is thus unable to be 'cropped' to the liking of feminists (Hekman, 1990:6). As a result, by remaining