Jessie's Webliography

Question 1: Judy Waczman argues that Donna Haraway's figure of the cyborg has taken on ‘a life of its own’ in popular culture, science fiction and academic writing. In what ways has it been taken up by feminists?

In order to answer the question that how Donna Haraway's figure of the cyborg been taken up by feminists, first, I read the reading of Judy Waczman so as to get the general idea of this topic. Then, I searched with the keywords such as ‘cyborg’, ‘feminist’ and ‘Donna Haraway’ etc. in the online search engines Google and Yahoo as well as in online journal websites. In the process of searching the relevant materials for my guiding question, I found that there have some external links after an article. Some of them are useful and relevant so it can reduce my time to search again in the online search engines or online journal websites. I have also tried to search the materials in HKU Libraries. However, the online sources cannot be accessible on the weblog because the electronic resources have restricted access.

Slavoj Zizek's article‘The Cyberspace Real’ introduces Peter Hoeg's novel called The Woman and the Ape, staging sex with an animal as a fantasy of full sexual relationship. The role of man and woman is that the animal ape is as a rule male whereas the cyborg is as a rule woman. This novel is about the fantasy of Woman-Machine, just likes Blade Runner. The man wants his feminine partner to be a programmed doll rather than a living being whereas the woman wants a strong animal partner. Slavoj argues that the scene of a male ape copulating with a female cyborg is confronting us with an unbearable scene of the ‘ideal couple’. In this kind of science fiction novel, it seems that woman is being marginalized because a living being cannot win acceptance. On the contrary, a cyborg is preferred.

Rosi Braidotti has pointed out some feminist visions on science fiction in her article 'Cyberfeminism with a difference'. Many feminists have turned to both writing and reading science fiction in order to assess the impact of the representation of sexual difference. Braidotti thinks the post-human plight implies a blurring of gender boundaries does not always have advantage of women. To a certain extent, she has the same point of view with other feminists. For example, she has argued that sciene fiction horror films play with fundamental male anxieties and displace it by inventing alternative views of reproduction, thereby manipulating the figure of the female body. She has also mentioned the cyberpunk and argued that it is male dominated. Cyberpunk dreams about the dissolution of the body into the Matrix. Braidotti called feminists and herself as riot girls that they have been persecuted and repressed by Big Mama all their life. The female image is just the image of the caring, nurturing and self-sacrificing. Women cannot be expected to share easily in the fantasy of a return to the Matrix. She has a complaint about lacking of space and time to develop and express their wishes. However, she is still willing to sit down to a good talk in order to negotiate margins of mutual toleration.

‘You Are Cyborg’ written by Hari Kunzru, is discussed the notion of cyborg based on Haraway's document ‘The Cyborg Manifesto’. Feminists around the world have seized on the possibility that women and men can all be reconstructed if they are not natural but are constructed, like a cyborg. And Kunzru mentioned that Cyberfeminism is based on the idea that it is possible to construct your identity, your sexuality, and even your gender in conjunction with technology. Being a cyborg is not just about the freedom to construct yourself but is about networks. Modern citizens are taught to think of themselves as beings who exist inside their heads. We are a collection of networks. We receive a lot of information from the networks and make up our ‘world’. Kunzru said that human beings in the '90s show a surprising willingness to understand themselves as creatures networked together. And the way we talk shows that we know we are really cyborgs. However, Kunzru challenges whether there is a need to seriously believe in this idea. For Haraway, feminist concerns are inside of technology, not a rhetorical overlay. Feminists are talking about cohabitation, such as between organisms and machines.

Kate Phillips has dealt with the concept of Haraway's Cyborg in relation to Feminism in her paper, 'Haraway's Cyborg and Feminism'. The Feminism that mentioned in her paper is referred to the movement to critique the power systems and social structures. Phillips argued that the mind/body split concept conceived by Descartes is problematic in which men were seen to be the rational creatures (the mind), while women were seen as being firmly rooted in the body. She also disagrees with the idea of sensuality towards body. In Feminism, there is a call for reclamation of the body and mind. The use of Cyborg as the tool to accomplish the goal is well proved. Besides, Phillips finds something interesting that some feminists both give in and critique in relation to cyberspace, the Cyborg, technology, and the way in which these may blur boundaries. For her, the Cyborg is ‘decentered.’ ‘Decentering’ is a postmodern concept that means a ways of seeing multiplicities and critiquing the social systems of oppression by seeing the linking's between them. She also states that a Cyborg, while frightening in its implications, is also the most powerful liberator that we can imagine.

Krista Scott's essay ‘The Cyborg, the Scientist, the Feminist & Her Critic’, has explained why feminists should concern with Haraway's vision of the cyborg. Scott has the same concern with Haraway that is some feminists are too quick engaging in ‘anti-science metaphysics and demonology of technology.’ Activists should not mount a defense against technoscience. Cyborg can represent a more positive thing for Scott. She indicated that Haraway hopes to use the cyborg to represent ‘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.’ To satisfy the problem of cyborg politics upon feminist identities, Scott tends to make an attempt to devise some kind of naturalized self. As identities seem contradictory, partial and strategic, it is difficult to name one's feminism by a single adjective.

Maria Fernandez and Suhail Malik cooperated to write an article, ‘Whatever Happened to the Cyborg Manifesto?’ in order to express their objection against Haraway's ‘The Cyborg Manifesto’. From Fernandez's point of view, the Cyborg Manifesto urged feminists to embrace new technologies as tools for feminist ends was a compelling antidote to the harmful notion that women belonged exclusively to ‘nature’. Malik has even pointed out five complaints towards the notion of cyborg in the article. He thinks that the tendentious appropriation of techno-scientific development as ‘cyborgian’ prohibits a creative understanding of organico-machinic nexus.

In conclusion, I found six online sources for my critical annotated webliography. I would like to discuss the overall feminist thinking on Donna Haraway's concept of the cyborg first. Many feminists disagree with Haraway's idea. However, I still found that there are different opinions towards the notion of the cyborg. I will remain neutral during arguing this guiding question. Therefore, I adopt a comprehensive point of view of feminists, some of my sources are agree with the notion of the cyborg that becomes important and prominent and some are not. The second article is the most important source and in accordance with my direction.


References

Zizek, Slavoj. ‘The Cyberspace Real’, European Graduate School Faculty, http://www.egs.edu/faculty/zizek/zizek-the-cyberspace-real.html [accessed 31 March 2008].

Braidotti, Rosi (1996). ‘Cyberfeminism with a difference’, http://www.let.uu.nl/womens_studies/rosi/cyberfem.htm [accessed 31 March 2008].

Kunzru, Hari (1997). ‘You Are Cyborg’, Wired Magazine, Issue 5.02, http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/5.02/ffharaway.html [accessed 31 March 2008].

Phillips, Kate (2007). ‘Haraway’s Cyborg and Feminism’, Associated Content, http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/226769/haraways_cyborg_and_feminism.html [accessed 31 March 2008].

Scott, Krista (1997). ‘The Cyborg, the Scientist, the Feminist & Her Critic’, The Feminist eZine, http://www.feministezine.com/feminist/philosophy/Cyborg-Scientist-Feminist.html [accessed 31 March 2008].

Fernandez, Maria and Malik, Suhail (2001). ‘Whatever Happened to the Cyborg Manifesto?’, Mute Magazine, http://www.metamute.org/en/Whatever-Happened-to-the-Cyborg-Manifesto [accessed 31 March 2008].