So what really is a cyborg? Is it just enough by combining human and machine and that makes one a cyborg as define by Haraway?
A cyborg is a cybernatic organism, a hybrid of machine and organism, a creature of social reality as well as a creature of fiction (Haraway, 2007, p34)
Will an individual who had a prosthetic arm a cyborg? So Detective Spooner in I, Robot a cyborg – being part human and part machine to help him function…better? What about a human who operate like a machine – ie, you wake up in the morning, have shower, dressed, breakfast, drive to work, do the tasks required one after another only having break during lunch time? I sometimes feel that I am a machine as working not stop from morning till nite – especially at work – able to have lunch is like a bonus to me some days. I even had a colleague who reminded me to take a break – will this make me a cyborg? As far as I am aware – I haven’t got any mechanical part in my organic form.
What feminism got to do with cyborg? I struggle with this when reading Haraway’s. I will get back to this…
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Mas, perhaps the best way into thinking about the connection between feminism and the cyborg is to consider the way in which Haraway asks us to think beyond dualisms. In the figure of the cyborg we have something which is neither male nor female, neither human nor animal, and neither human nor machine – it’s about boundary transgression and blowing apart binaries. In that sense it helps us to think beyond the categories of male/female, masculine/feminine and the ‘traditional’ ways of classifying and categorising women (and men). It opens up new ways of thinking about what it might mean to be ‘human’, and a new kind of feminist consciousness. Does this help at all? Please come back to me if you need more on this.
Sian,
Thank you! I think I beginning to understand it plus the Skype session on Wednesday does helps too. But I definitely need to read both papers again.