Response

In the past article “Reading Cyborgs Writing Feminism” by Anne Balasmo U was extremely interested in her connection of the cyborg and the feminine and also the cyborg and the concept of otherness. Last semester we explored the idea of otherness in monsters as a being that questioned various binaries to exist in limbo. In a similar way the cyborg does the same thing by testing boundaries of human/machine, technological/biological etc. We learned that often times the idea of otherness comes from an inner fear of social or internal discomforts. In the article Balasmo writes that “cyborgs come to represent unfamiliar otherness one which challenges the connotative stability of human identity.” The fact that cyborgs represent such otherness is a testament to the future of our society. Female cyborgs in particular represent an even greater societal fear of the female influence of technology. Since cyborgs are seen as the postmodern icon, our prospective idea of otherness could eventually dissapate into the cyborg being viewed as “normal”. It ma be true that in the future, we may have more and more artificial body parts- arms, legs, hearts, eyes and so on- till one might end up finally as a brain in a wholly artificial body. The ever evolving ideas about what defines a machine have changed including the influence of the female are changing.

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