Critical Annotated Webilography

Guiding Question: In Haraway’s ‘Cyborg Mainfesto’, she strategically assigns her cyborg a female gender. In what way is gender significant in the representation of the cyborg in popular culture and technoscience?

In this webliography, I will focus on female cyborgs in different aspect. There are six sources I want to focus on in the following part; they are all online resources in the World Wide Web. As I have to make sure of the credibility of the materials, I have used the Google Scholar search engine and Google search engine to find these sources. Then I double check the authors’ name to make sure they are author of any printed materials such as journals, articles and books. After reading these six web materials, I try to focus on the representation of female cyborg in science fiction films and cyberpunk films. Also, I will focus on the webs’ quotations of Haraway’s idea of cyborg and their interpretation of Haraway’s idea.

Begins with the first source, ‘The "Nature" of the Female Cyborg: Evidence of Will in the Mechanical Woman’, is analyzing the film, Metropolis, by Fritz Lang, which is a good example of female cyborg in science fiction film. In the story, Maria is a female cyborg made by Johhan. She is typically a man’s ideal woman. She is controlled by the male creator, Johhan, who try to use her as a tool to tempt men and follow what she says and finally he is controlling all of them. The article states that the female cyborg is seen as sex object and it is man’s fantasy to have such a cyborg. But the female cyborg is also seen as a threat to the man as Maria is a female fatale who is powerful to destroy man.
In the second source, ‘The Cyborg Self’, the author have also mention about the female cyborg is treated as sexual object. ‘Female cyborg is the mix of masculine, rational, mechanistic technology wit the feminine, conflated in the Western imagination with nature, emotion, and sentimentality embodies the cyborg’s transgression of the human/machine distinction.’ Female cyborg is not only the mix of machine and woman but also man. It physically is the female body figure made by metal collage and machines. At the same time, it contains the mix of masculine and feminine. This combination breaks the distinction between human and machine. ‘The manipulation and ownership of these female bodies by masculinist Western science and patriarchal corporations and governments place this constructed femininity in a subordinate order.’ As we are living in a patriarchal society, female is always in subordinate position. Therefore, cyborg in female figure will also be subordinated in the society. In science fiction, ‘Female cyborg is endowed with hyperfeminine, sexualized traits.’ This mean the female cyborg is created to be the ideal women figure which fulfills the male fantasy for example, large breasts and slim waist. Both of the articles mention the female cyborg in science fiction with the similar angle which sees the female body being exploited by the male gaze.
Female cyborg seems represented a bit different in another kind of film. Cyberpunk is a sub-genre of science fiction film. The time of the film usually set in near future and focuses on technology, computer and dystopian world. In the third source, DeVincentis make a great analyze of a cyberpunk film, Jonny Mnemonic. In the film, the male protagonist and female lead both are cyborg who sexually and physically in a reverse. The male protagonist is weak that he can not fight and need the female lead to save him and help him out of risk. ‘The gender roles are reversed. As a result of technology, "female" takes on "masculine" characteristics of physical strength and resourcefulness. On the other hand, "male" takes on "feminine" characteristics: he becomes the carrier/object (rather than subject) of important information.’ This film gives a positive representation of being a female cyborg as the female lead is not an invention of man but rather choose to be a cyborg by her own will. She takes control of her own body and she is representing a heroine to save the male protagonist. The author thinks that ,‘Although the technology rendering both Johnny and Jane cyborgs breaks down the solidity of the female and male body, it also seems to indicate that without the technology, both would return to their "natural states."’ To see in other angle, technology gives us more choices to choose from. We are able to choose what we want and not tired up with the sex organs anymore. It is similar to Haraway suggestion of cyborg can be empowering particularly for women.

In the fourth and fifth sources, they both mention Haraway theory in their article about female cyborg. They all give Haraway’s definition of cyborg and the break down of the boundaries. In ‘Cyborgs and Feminists’, the author focuses on a broader vision of female cyborg in traditional science fiction film, conventional identity of cyborg which ‘seems that the cyborg image is used to create a female identity that is at once familiar, frightening and titillating to male viewers.’ But in Haraway’s vision, cyborg is a tool to combat the male and female binary. In ‘Female Cyborg’, the author has a different idea of cyborg. ‘Feminist cyborgs are the agent of US Third World feminism and the illegitimate offspring of “patriarchal capitalism.”’ Feminism cyborg represents technological embodiment to against conventional society.

And in the last source, ‘CyberPsychology & Behavior’, the author stated that the machine usual serves merely to reinforce the gender dynamics currently at play. The author wants to show us the World Wide Web nowadays reinforce conventional notions of masculinity, femininity, heterosexuality for the cyborgs image in the net which is not ideal of Haraway’s theory, new kinds of boundary still exists.

Cyborg is usually created as female gender. In science fiction films, they construct a conventional female cyborg as sexual object for male. The female cyborg is being exploited by the male gaze that the cyborg has to fit the ‘ideal’ female appearance. In cyberpunk films, the status have a bit different as it accepts the reverse of the male and female gender position and female are free to choose their appearance or ability. It fit Haraway’s theory of boundary breakdowns. However, the dominant female cyborg image is still following the conventional trend. It will not be an easy task to change the deep-rooted social institution of female subordination. At least we can be alert of the social institution.



Bibliography:

DeVincentis, A. ‘Johnny Mnemonic’ (1996)
http://www.georgetown.edu/faculty/bassr/amanda/johnny.htm (accessed 23 March 2007)

DeVoss, D. ‘CyberPsychology & Behavior, Rereading Cyborg(?) Women: The Visual Rhetoric of Images of Cyborg (and Cyber) Bodies on the World Wide Web’ (Oct 2000)
http://www.liebertonline.com/doi/abs/10.1089/10949310050191818(accessed 21 March 2007)

Dhamee, Y. ‘CyBorgs and Feminists’ (14 April 2005)
http://www.cyberartsweb.org/cpace/cpace/cyborg/ydcyborg.html (accessed 21 March 2007)

Duran, L, ‘The Female Cyborg’
http://mjbarias.com/scifi/femcyb.html (accessed 22 March 2007)

Myman, F. ‘The “Nature” of the Female Cyborg: Evidence of will in the Mechanical Woman’ (1999)
http://www.cyrune.com/Metropolis.html (accessed 23 March 2007)

Nagle, P. ‘The Cybrog Self’ (2006)
http://www.cyberartsweb.org/cpace/cpace/cyborg/nagle/7.html (accessed 21 March 2007)