6 minute read
The Mother of SciFi
Amazon may choose depicted female voices for their AI, yet the reasoning behind the deep societal troupes of sexualized and feminized AI is rooted in sexism and misogyny. Historically speaking, machines have often been referred to as females. Think of Forrest’s boat named Jenny in Forrest Gump. Referencing “toys” like cars and boats as ‘she’ is nothing new, so when moving into more technological advancements like AI, gendering does not come as a surprise. Considering this with the sentiment that female voices are considered more trustworthy and less threatening, characters like Siri and Alexa were stable picks. But, some researchers claim there might be alternative motives towards picking inviting voices. Heather Woods, a researcher and professor at Kansas State pointed out that choosing a feminine and trustable voice is intended to cause a trusting relationship between consumers and their devices, an aspect companies can utilize and commodify.5 Data collection companies can track and store your voice commands, searches and all other personal data. Devices like Google Homes and Amazon Echos are even known to listen in and store audio data 24/7, even when the AI technology is not in usage.6 This data can then be used, like all other forms of big data, to sell, interpret and commodify for other brands and businesses. Alexa has 80,000 apps with companies like Nike and Tide giving brands a direct ‘in’ to consumers in their daily lives.7
5 Heather Suzanne Woods, “Asking more of Siri and Alexa: feminine persona in service of surveillance capitalism,” Taylor & Francis Online, January 2, 2018. 6 Matt Day, “You’re Home Alone with Alexa. Are Your Secrets Safe?” Bloomberg, December 20, 2019. 7 Matt Day. “Amazon Alexa Has 80,000
Building a strong relationship with your friendly Alexa is one way Amazon can track you down and sell you off in their capitalistic practices. But this still doesn’t answer why gendered technologies are the default. Just like traditional, human female bodies, the bodies of robots and other mechanical beings are hyper-sexualized. In 2016 Sophia by Hanson Robotics, a life-like female humanoid robot gained recognition by appearing on 60 Minutes, The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon, going on a date with Will Smith and other various forms of media coverage.8 When googling Sophia, the first video that pops-up deems her “hot,” followed by various headlines covering a story from when Sophia announced she did not engage in sexual activity.9 Another notable humanoid robot, Erica by Hiroshi Ishiguro, was made with the intention of being the most beautiful woman, ranging in versions from “demurely conservative” to “sassy and stylish.” When men went on a date with the robot they were
Apps—and No Runaway Hit,” Bloomberg, March 11, 2019. 8 Pascale Fung, “This is why AI has a gender problem,” World Economic Forum, June 20, 2019. 9 Google, Sophia the Robot Search, March 12, 2021. said to have blushed while flirting even though they were totally aware she wasn’t real.10
This sexual obsession and peculiar sexual intentions can be explained through the root term technosexual, a sexual and/or intimate desire for technological humanoid bodies.11 Although not all who create or adhere to feminine humanoids or feminine AI in general may identify with this term, the concept of technosexuality can lead to why technology is feminized. Humanoids can be altered and manipulated to act, look and behave in any desired way. When people alter these technologies to an ideal female body or character they are perpetuating traditional gender norms and creating a reallife impossible in mechanical form. This is especially harmful when done through the male gaze, which is the act depicting women through a heterosexual male persepctive. Humanoides created with this idealized, picturesque intentions hurt women who don’t look like that, don’t act like and don’t need to. →
10 Pascale Fung, “This is why AI has a gender problem,” World Economic Forum, June 20, 2019. 11 Ann-Renee Clark, ‘Love From the Machine: Technosexualities and the Desire of Mechanic Bodies,” FIU Digital Commons, June 25, 2019.
This is not to stigmatize the technosexual identity, but rather to point out the ways in which feminized mechanical bodies and beings are created in a way that upholds and inspires female idealism as real femaleidentifying people move and grow away from traditional gender norms and expectations. This is especially harmful at a time of heightened photoshopping, plastic surgery and other forms of manipulation that may inspire women to alter themselves in ways they may not truly desire. To be frank, we don’t need more images and depictions of male idealized females because women don’t need to be ideal for men.
Media depictions of female humanoids further this technosexuality and the ways in which men desire to alter and change women. The Fembots in the Austin Powers film series sport pastel, feather lingerie, blonde locks and guns hidden in their breasts acting as sexual devices meant to distract their enemy.12 These humanoids embody idealized feminine shapes and act in sexualized ways, all while being controlled by male figures. In the film “Ex Machina,” directed by Alex Garland, the gynoids are both constrained and constructed as “object of spectacle.”13 The characters are constantly fetisishized and many of the film’s shots focus on the gynoids body and shape. Moreover, the feminized humanoids in this film are subject to the control of humans, they are held captive and their behavior and appearance falls under the manipulation of their creator.14 The depictions of these gynoids emulate what can be done with feminized robots. When created in a feminine and sexualized fashion, gynoids are subject to the conditions and ideals of their male creators serving the possibility for men to do whatever they want with a feminized being. In the film “Her,” directed by Spike Jonze, a man, named Theodroe, falls in love and develops a connection with a virtual assistant, named Samantha who does not occupy a humanoid body. The basis of this connection starts when Theodore confides in Samantha
13 Poppy Johns, “”More Human than Human”: The Performativity of Humanness in Fembots Films,” University of Otago, 2019. 14 Ibid. about the end of his marriage.15 Feminist theory points out the ways in which human women are already subject to the emotional needs of men as they are not conditioned by society to process these emotions the same way women are. If media depictions of technosexual relationships reflect this it’s safe to say that feminized humanoids are fitting gendered norms, but through the control and desires of males, not females. The far-out possibilities of dating a robot are growing closer as we develop and progress artificial intelligence. Although many of the millions of virtual assistant AI users won’t develop deep set emotional connections with their devices the feminized caricature of technology is an important point of conversation. The simple choices of companies to develop artificial intelligence as females goes far beyond the desire to build trust and establish a friendly personality. The decision of feminized AI runs deep into the way we view women and the way we want to control women.
In traditional gender norms, women are set to serve men, to take care of them, to tend to the house, the children, to cook, to clean. Beings like Siri and Alexa are also built to serve, to answer questions, to be there when needed. When female AI get it wrong or miss something, they are just a silly woman, messing up again. When technology is feminized we start to treat it like we treat real women and although that may seem harmless as they are not real beings it speaks loudly to the ways we continuously hold women back and perpetuate traditional gender norms. We simply cannot find gender equality or gender neutrality if we continue to gender technology. I find it alarming that robots are continuously being depicted as feminized sexual characters, built to serve men. In one way, having a robot do this means I don’t have to, but in another way, men controlling feminized robots is only a substitute for the control of feminized living beings. ■
