The Gendered Cyborg: The Cyborg Metaphor in Contemporary Science Fiction Narratives

The Gendered Cyborg: The Cyborg Metaphor in Contemporary Science Fiction Narratives

This essays works to examine, contrast, and compare filmic iterations of the female gendered cyborg (cybernetic organism), and explore how these texts subscribe to, break away from, or transcend traditional narratives surrounding women and the experience of female embodiment. Two primary texts will be examined; The 1995 animated film Ghost in the Shell, and the 2015 film Ex Machina. Two predominant narratives within these films will be revealed and discussed; The cyborg as a metaphorical object, and gendered technology. Donna Haraway’s cyborg theory, and the 1999 collection of essays titled The Gendered Cyborg: A Reader will be adopted as the theoretical frameworks through which these narratives will be examined; The first, a post-essentialist feminist theory critiquing traditional narratives surrounding identity and patriarchal tenets, and the latter, a contemporary reflection of the former, that seeks new perspectives in these fields. Both draw on the transhuman (cyborg) narrative as a tool for reflecting upon, and understanding feminine embodiment. It is this employment of the cinematic gendered cyborg as a metaphor for the feminine experience that this essay will explore.

In order to derive meaning from the narratives surrounding depictions of the cyborg, we must first understand it as an idealogical site. Gill Kirkup considers an empirical view of western techno-science to be one concerned with producing categories and definitions through which the material world may be understood, and it’s behaviour controlled and predicted. She challenges this with the poststructuralist view that the categories and definitions science produces, themselves produce knowledge, and that power comes through this production (Haraway et. al., 1999, p.3). In this way, we understand that the depiction of the cyborg as symbolically female is a classification that produces meaning through its relation to its ‘female-ness’; A cyborg depicted as female simultaneously speaks to its object-hood, as a machine, and it’s subject-hood, as a female. It is also important to note that when referring to binary relationships and hierarchies within this essay (eg. male/female), knowledge is drawn from the narratives surrounding, rather than the complex realities inherent to these taxonomies.

Ex Machina: synopsis Ex Machina follows the story of a young computer programmer (Caleb) who is invited to meet the reclusive genius director of the internet search company he works for. It is soon revealed that the director (Nathan) has invited Caleb to participate as the component in a Turing test examining the sentience of Nathan’s most recent work; A humanoid robot named Ava. Over the course of the film, Caleb grows more attached to Ava, eventually setting her free. The film’s climax finds both male protagonists mortally betrayed by their cyborg subject (Ex Machina, 2015).

Ghost in the Shell: synopsis Ghost in the Shell is the 1995 animated film set in a fictional Japanese city in the year 2029. The story is centred around Major Motoko Kusanagi, a cyborg task-force leader in the public security sector. The film follows her search and capture of the sentient ‘ghost’ of a weaponised cyborg, who, existing as pure computer code, is able to infiltrate other cyborg minds. Ghost in the shell culminates in the unification of both Kusanagi’s and the ghost’s minds, creating a hybrid brain. The hybrid is then smuggled to a safe house, escaping authorities (Ghost in the Shell, 1995).

The Cyborg as Metaphorical Object Why does the female gendered cyborg persist as an artefact of contemporary sci-fi cinema? We see her perpetuated in countless cinematic fictions as the manifested male fantasy; Compliant, and harmless in films such as Her (2013), Cloud Atlas (2012), or The Stepford Wives (2004). But it is the use of the gendered cyborgs as a feared, mysterious, and ultimately weaponised being that, along with several others, Ghost in the Shell and Ex Machina adopt.

Cyber utopian discourses consist typically of the phantasies of human bodies becoming obsolete where man becomes pure intelligence, and the automatic emergence of a 'global village' where social hierarchies will eventually dissolve, allowing for a total egalitarian society. These utopian discourses however fail to see the body as the material location where power is exerted and fail to account for the social hierarchies within Western culture in which the Internet was created.

Moreover, the idea of a global village through the Net excludes the non-connected and the desire of becoming a pure intelligence can be exposed as a traditional

masculine white Western phantasy that is closely connected to the notion of Cartesian subjectivity and psychoanalytical accounts of how Western masculinity is constructed. (Hoofd, 2002) Although Hoofd is here talking about the sometimes utopian perspectives associated with networked technology, the theory is easily applied to the various manifestations of female cyborgs in popular culture; Particularly when we recognise the cyborg as being an extension of the technological/male. It therefore begs the question; What are the implications of this extension of the male being represented as female? Both Ghost in the Shell and Ex Machina could be seen as examples of Hoofd’s failure to acknowledge, and therefore break away from, traditional patriarchal structures. Although both present their respective female cyborgs as empowered, their adherence to traditional hierarchical narratives surrounding women remains largely unacknowledged.

Ex Machina director Alex Garland explained that he was interested in exploring the contemporary fear that once artificial intelligence reaches an equality with human intelligence, given the fact that machines never age or become ill, humans would be rendered redundant (Through the Looking Glass: Making Ex Machina, 2015). Öyzol argues that this fear is central to the perseverance of the gendered cyborg. She further points out that the fear of the path of the cyborg from object to autonomous being is mirrored in patriarchal fears surrounding women (Özyol, 2016). In both texts, the cyborg rebels against its creators, effectively transgressing its intended purpose as a manifestation (object) of the male fantasy. As such, the portrayal of female-gendered cyborgs as dangerous beings is rooted in the fear that patriarchal ideals of womanhood and femininity will be rejected in favour of autonomy. It uncovers a narrative that is concerned with the fear of a loss of control. Considering both Ghost in the Shell and Ex Machina are written and directed by males, the male gaze that drives these two films could be read as being inherently linked with this fear.

By keeping Ava in a cell-like environment, Garland works simultaneously to acknowledge Nathan’s consciousness of Ava’s dangerous autonomous potentiality, and place her in a ‘damsel in distress’ situation, effectively painting her as both subject and object. This creates a concurrent feeling of both desire and distrust, and is part of the film’s ability to create a successful narrative about the tension between opposing forces; The

metaphorical cyborg. In her subject-hood, we read Ava as increasingly harmless, as, over the course of the film, she begins to cover her machine signifiers with dresses, hair, and other expressions of traditional femininity; Including, and most significantly, an increasingly flirtatious approach toward Caleb. In the culmination of the film, we learn that Ava has in fact effectively weaponised her femininity in order to manipulate Caleb into releasing her. It is here that the audience’s ‘antagonist’, or danger, rapidly shifts from Nathan to Ava. When we consider Kyoko’s role in the film, a bigger picture about the underlying fears driving the film is revealed. Kyoko is the only other female in the film. She is a cyborg built

by Nathan purely to ‘keep him company’. Kyoko acts as something of a beautiful maid; She cooks, cleans, and looks after her owner/creator. It is important to note that Kyoko is not given the ability to speak, act with autonomy, or possess the intelligence capabilities given to Ava. Despite of, or perhaps purely because of her naive mental capabilities, it is revealed over the course of the film that Kyoko acts as Nathan’s concubine. As a result of these two different representations of the female cyborg, the narrative that Ex Machina reinforces is one of traditional binary hierarchies. When the representation is one of idealogical femininity; Compliant, beautiful, and heteronomous, the female cyborg is not feared. Conversely, when Ava is freed from her simultaneously metaphorical and physical limitations; Femininity and prison cell respectively, she is considered a danger. This notion is reinforced in the scene of Nathan’s death at Ava’s hand. Here, the film presents Ava in her explicitly mechanical form, notably without feminine signifiers. Kyoko in this scene represents the feminine, and Ava the machine/masculine. It is the first time the two meet, and significantly, the catalyst for Nathan’s death. In this sense, Ex Machina reinforces the narrative that a female, or femininity plus autonomy equals danger.

Gendered Technology Mary Anne Doane, in her 1999 essay Technophilia: Technology, Representation and The Feminine, considers the implications of female representations in cyborg cinema; Although it is certainly true that in the case of some contemporary science fiction writers – particularly feminist authors – technology makes possible the destabilization of sexual identity as a category, there has also been a curious but fairly insistent history of representations of technology that work to fortify – sometimes desperately – conventional understandings of the feminine. A certain

anxiety concerning the technological is often allayed by a displacement of this anxiety onto the figure of the woman or the idea of the feminine.

(Haraway et. al.,1999) Jennifer Robertson reflects upon this idea by observing that the way in which cyborg creators gender their creations could be seen as “manifestation of their tacit understanding of femininity in relation to masculinity, and vice versa” (2010, p.4).

It is here that both example texts unfortunately fall back onto well-worn gender specific tropes. Both Ava, and Motoko are presented within highly-sexualised forms. Within the first five minutes of Ghost in the Shell we see Motoko dramatically disrobe, revealing a nude female form (large breasts, a narrow waist and wide hips). There are only two small but significant visual signifiers to reveal to the audience that Motoko is in fact a cyborg; Four electrical connectors below the base of her skull, and a smooth area of skin where pubic genitalia would typically lie.

Despite Motoko’s role as protagonist and driver of action within the film (traditionally a male role), we are constantly reminded of her femininity, particular her feminised body.

Throughout the film she appears either nude or in form-fitting attire, and there are several instances where her partner, a stereotypically brawny character (wide, square body, stoic personality) acts out the role of the chivalrous male by covering Motoko’s unclothed body with his jacket, or turning away from her changing clothes. Significantly, all other males in the film are consistently clothed, often in suits; Clothing distinctly related to powerful positions. The film’s antagonist (a male character), when depicted as a woman also appears naked, conjuring parallels with Ex Machina’s dangerous autonomous feminine.

The narrative that these instances build is one that speaks to the power dynamics associated with patriarchal dualisms; The feminine painted as the vulnerable/suspicious.

This narrative, coupled with the lens of the male gaze that we experience the film through unfortunately employ the cyborg as a vehicle through which to objectify the female body.

While it could be argued that Ava could alternatively be read as being a triumphant example of the feminine identity subverting their own objectification, it is her ultimate portrayal as the ‘feared other’ that falls back on traditional narratives. The male gaze still drives these films. It makes itself known in the many problematic visual tropes employed, and while in some aspects they are challenged, they fall just short of pushing these films

into an area that transcends traditional gendered narratives, where arguably, a transhuman narrative should sit by default.

Ex Machina. (2015). [film] Directed by A. Garland. Universal Pictures.

Ghost in the Shell. (1995). [film] Directed by M. Oshii. Japan: Manga Entertainment.

Haraway, D. (2001). Simians, Cyborgs, and Women. New York, NY [u.a.]: Routledge.

Haraway, D., Hovenden, F., Janes, L., Kirkup, G. and Woodward, K. (1999). The Gendered Cyborg : A Reader. [ebook] Taylor and Francis. Available at: http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/qut/ detail.action?docID=1397045 [Accessed 11 Sep. 2017].

Hoofd, I. (2002). Cyborg Manifesto 2.0. [online] Cyber Arts Web. Available at: http:// www.cyberartsweb.org/cpace/theory/hoofd/index.html [Accessed 11 Sep. 2017].

Logan Castle (2015). Ex Machina - Nathan's Death. [video] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=bsdGhIfjCYw [Accessed 13 Sep. 2017]. Özyol, L. (2016). Pygmalion Myth in Science-Fiction Cinema: Stepford Wives, Blade Runner, Ghost in the Shell. International Journal of Arts & Sciences, [online] 9(2), pp.73-98. Available at: https://search-proquest-com.ezp01.library.qut.edu.au/docview/1858849762?pq-origsite=summon [Accessed 6 Sep. 2017].

Robertson, J. (2010). Gendering Humanoid Robots: Robo-Sexism in Japan. Body & Society, [online] 16(2). Available at: http://journals.sagepub.com.ezp01.library.qut.edu.au/doi/pdf/ 10.1177/1357034X10364767 [Accessed 13 Sep. 2017].

Through the Looking Glass: Making Ex Machina. (2015). [film] Directed by L. Stephenson and J. Mefford. USA: Lionsgate Home Entertainment.

Turing Test. (2017). In: Encyclopaedia Britannica. Encyclopaedia Britannica. [online] Available at: https://www.britannica.com/technology/Turing-test Universal Pictures UK (2014). Ex Machina - Official International Trailer 1 (Universal Pictures) HD. [video] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sNExF5WYMaA [Accessed 4 Sep. 2017].

Viral Film (2014). Ghost in the Shell (1995) - Official Trailer HD. [video] Available at: https:// www.youtube.com/watch?v=p2MEaROKjaE [Accessed 4 Sep. 2017].