A Manifesto for the resto…well, really only for the feminists!

One of our readings for class was Donna Haraway’s A Cyborg Manifesto, which was if nothing else, an interesting look at feminism. She uses the ‘cyborg’ as a reference for women, society and the way things have changed; the role that women and technology play in it and even how they relate to one another. The ‘cyborg’ could be women in general or the idea of women or the social idea of women or even the social standard that women are held to. There are many ways to read into Haraway’s writing, she offers multiple examples of these roles and several different discussions on women in what she describes as the “integrated circuit”.

For example, first a definition of what exactly a cyborg is, in her voice “a hybrid of machine and organism, a creature of social reality as well as a creature of fiction” and in regards to women “a matter of fiction and lived experience that changes what counts as women’s experience in the late twentieth century. This is a struggle over life and death, but the boundary between science fiction and social reality [as] an optical illusion” (1). In Haraway’s writing the cyborg stands for all the different roles women play and all a larger level all the multiple views and definitions any organism or even machine can have. For instance, electronic pets for children; they serve simply as toys but they are computers within themselves and they offer a look at the technologies of today. If society can build a completely electronic creature, one that barks and plays and begs for attention then what lies ahead for mankind, will it become an entirely technological world in which real animals and pets are replaced with cold, metal ones that need to be charged!

Discussing the computerized pooch of today brings into question the idea of intelligence, can it be programmed? If so, will the world one day become like the sci-fi worlds of so many movies? Consider the resent movie I Robot starring Will Smith (2), science has advanced so that real robots not only exist but live as near equals to humans and the humans depend on them on a daily basis. Is that a plausible future, will society allow the earth to be over run but electronic beings, will we ever really possess the technology to even think this possible? This idea of artificial intelligence is one for another discussion, Haraway’s essay emphasizes the “argument for the cyborg as a fiction mapping our social and bodily reality and as an imaginative resource” (1). Cyborgs can be seen as a breach between social boundaries in similar fashion to the robotic dog toy discussed earlier, it is both a dog and a robot, here too Internet applications such Second Life and even the computer game The Sims (3) could be a relevant topic for debate. Let the focus remain on Haraway’s definition of the cyborg and the boundaries they cross and breakdown. She defines them as dualism’s of ones mindset, animal and machine, idealism and materialism, symbolic formulations and physical artifacts. Her reasoning and purpose for the article rests in the ideal that “a cyborg world might be about lived social and bodily realities in which people are not afraid of their joint kinship with animals and machines, not afraid of permanently partial identities and contradictory standpoints. The political struggle is to see from both perspectives at once because each reveals both dominations and possibilities unimaginable from the other vantage point” (1). This statement, first published in Socialist Review 80: 65-108 in 1985 still hold true today in a society where thing one says and does ends up on the Internet for the world to see. Where our political leaders are simply the candidates who lie the best or have the cleanest backgrounds. People can argue all day that it needs to be about the issues but society has become so divided between democratic and republican that the issues matter very little and the loyalties of the candidates to their home parties is what sets them each apart. The presidential race this term is one for the history books, it is the first time that both a black man and a women have even been so seriously considered. Having a background in areas of society not involving politics, my views and ideas on the subject are easily dismissible but I feel very strongly that we, as a social body have begun to lose the importance of politics. The government is supposed to represent the people but in these later years that is not always the case, I believe Haraway said it best, “Single vision produces worse illusions than double vision or many headed monsters” (1) what is the point in having a government for the people, by the people if the people in question are not even voting for the ideas but rather the image and title of the parties?

Well, bringing the focus back to women and their role in the ‘integrated circuit’ of society I again turn to Haraway herself and the social impact of being a woman in modern times, “there is nothing about “female” that naturally binds women. There is not even such a state as “being” female, itself a highly complex category constructed in contested sexual scientific discourses and other social practices. Gender, race or class consciousness is an achievement forced on us by the terrible historical experience of the contradictory social realities of patriarchy, colonialism, and capitalism” (1). Even today, twenty some-odd years after this essay was written women still struggle daily to prove their social worth in fields that have been historically male such as, engineering and corporate business. In the art world we see less of this because all artists struggle to make their work and views known to people outside the art world. Here too often situations arise where women have to defend themselves more than the average male might showing the same work. It is this constant gender struggle often encompasses artists entire bodies of work such as Hararway herself who believes in ‘cyber-feminism’ a field of many followers.

The woman’s role in technological advances often goes unnoticed or is easily forgotten. One of the first computer programmers, ever, was a woman by the name of Grace Hopper. If had not been for her and her brilliant mind we not have the technologies we now take forgranted on an hourly basis. Women should not be overlooked when it comes to technology or art, especially in this age of New Media and the digital art being created as we speak by strong and inspiring women all around the world. I may not feel as strongly about women’s role and though I personally would not compare us to cyborgs I respect many of the points Haraway’s stresses and her social interpretations of the feminine role in life and the workplace and true to modern life and hit home for many us female artists out there.

Donna Haraway, A Cyborg Manifesto, Socialist Review 80 1985 (the New Media Reader, The MIT Press Cambridge, Mass. London, England)

I, Robot, 2004, Starring Will Smith directed by Alex Proyas (Internet movie Database 2008 )

The Sims 2000, creator Will Wright (Maxis and Electronic Arts)