Cyborg Feminism: The Intersection of Gender and Technology in Contemporary Science Fiction

Parul Rastogi

doi:10.70528/IJLRP.v4.i1.2096

Cyborg Feminism: The Intersection of Gender and Technology in Contemporary Science Fiction

Author(s)	Parul Rastogi
Country	India
Abstract	In addition to reincarnation, this study also reexamines the theoretical and cultural relevance of cyborg feminism in science fiction in recent times. Drawing on the principles of Donna Haraway's cyborg theory (as well as post-humanist and intersectional feminist scholarship) and subsequently post-humanist and intersectional feminist literature, this paper argues that recent science fiction no longer sees cyborgs as an emblem of disembodied, gender-neutral liberation, but as a physical person that belongs to a system and so within the techno-capitalist world which retains and transforms the existing hierarchies of gender, race, labor and power. With qualitative analysis that combines close textual analysis with feminist critical discourse analysis, we have studied the current science fiction literature on cyborgs in the context of Ex Machina (2014), Binti (2015) and present-day (2015) as a comparison. Based on these works, we analyze three themes of thematic change: the persistence of artificial femininity in the form of the fembot, cyborg subjectivity in exploitative and feminized labor conditions, and the emerging post-gender and post-binary and post-queer identity in cyborg corporeality in technologically mediated corporeality. In other words, our results show that technological mediation does not dissolve physical inequalities; rather it re-establishes them through the use of algorithmic governance, surveillance and objectification. At the same time, contemporary science fiction also exposes the contradictions in these systems and presents hybrid characters who have to negotiate a limited degree of autonomy within systems of domination. This duality makes the cyborg not only one of a system of intense control but also a site of feminist, anti-racist, and anti-colonial resistance. This article helps to make cyborg feminism, posthumanism and intersectional technology critiques a part of the larger debate in feminist theory, science fiction studies and critical technology studies. It argues that the cyborg is still essential for us now and that we cannot turn our eyes away from it as a symbol of post-gender equality (and not just post-gender identity) but also as a model to view the unequal, contested and materially grounded future of embodiment in the age of artificial intelligence and platform capitalism.
Published In	Volume 4, Issue 1, January 2023
Published On	2023-01-05
DOI	https://doi.org/10.70528/IJLRP.v4.i1.2096
Short DOI	https://doi.org/hbwh35

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Cyborg Feminism: The Intersection of Gender and Technology in Contemporary Science Fiction

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