Cybernetic bodies are essentially humanoid machines created to resemble natural born human beings. In the movie Stepford Wives, the TV show Black Mirror, and the play Rossum’s Universal Robots there are cybernetic bodies that are portrayed in a very similar way. In R.U.R. and the episode of Black Mirror called “Be Right Back” the reason for the creation of these robots was to satisfy a human need for labor or companionship. The cyborgs in these works were meant to be slaves to human needs and desires. These two texts also reflect a very male-dominated society in which women are complacent and placed in stereotypical roles. The similar themes in these texts make it easier for a viewer/reader to analyze a common theme that is predicting what it may be like if cybernetic bodies were to be mass produced in our world.
In Black Mirror a woman creates a cybernetic body of her deceased partner in an attempt to ease her own grieving. This cyborg was created solely for the purpose of fulfilling her every need. It wanted to do anything she wanted in order to please her. The cyborg meant to resemble Martha’s partner, Ash, constantly asks her questions to measure how much he is pleasing her and serving her the way he was made to. He says things like “does this bother you?” 0r “is this something [Ash] would say?” in order to ensure that he is fulfilling his purpose, which was ultimately to replace Martha’s missing lover. This is very similar to the cyborgs that were created in the movie Stepford Wives who were also created to please their husbands. In Stepford Wives the robot women are meant to replace the men’s initial wives and be a more perfect carbon copy of them. They cooked, cleaned, dressed modestly, took care of the children, and did anything that their husbands wanted them to do. They even had bodies that were altered to be more perfect, just like in Black Mirror. “You look like him, on a good day,” is the way that Martha described her cyborg Ash. To parallel these two works, the play R.U.R. also emphasizes that the ultimate purpose of robots is labor. The robots in this text were all created to serve as cheap laborers as a replacement to humans in the workforce. In the play, Domin states “[…] within the next ten years, Rossum’s Universal Robots will produce so much wheat, so much cloth, so much everything that things will no longer have any value. Everyone will be able to take as much as he needs. There’ll be no more poverty. Yes, people will be out of work, but by then there’ll be no work left to be done. Everything will be done by living machines. People will do only what they enjoy. They will live only to perfect themselves. (prologue.317). The robots in all three of these stories have been created to serve the needs of humans. This is thought provoking because it is a realistic view on why we as a human society would want to create cybernetic bodies.
Gender stereotypes and sexism are also very evident in R.U.R. and Stepford Wives. The main characters of the play consist of mostly men, with only two women out of all of the characters. The women in this play are looked down upon, in fact the main female lead Helena seems to only be viewed as a potential wife to all the men in the play. The other female character, Nana, is also overlooked although she seems to be one of the most logical and intelligent characters as she is right about many tragedies and mistakes that occur throughout the story. None of the men in the play listen to the women and they are very overshadowed, almost an afterthought. At a point along the play Helena even says “why don’t you ever let me finish my sentences?” (prolougue.31) to Domin which emphasizes the fact that these men never let her get a word or thought in. Even the way the characters are named is sexist in some way. The name Domin can be viewed to mean “dominant,” as he is the figure in the play that is constantly attempting to be dominant over Helena. The character name “Nana” is also very significant as this is one of two female characters in a play and she is named in a way that makes her seem like a maid or servant. These same sexist undertones are present in Stepford Wives as the men of Stepford have basically decided that the ideal woman is one that performs domestic duties and lives to please her husband. The men in this text recreate their women to have ideal flawless bodies, faces, and manners. The cyborg women are not dominant or in powerful positions in society. It is interesting to contrast the sexist undertones and gender roles present in these two works when cybernetic bodies get involved. They raise the question of whether the creation of cyborgs could lead to a gender divide among society that is even deeper and more severe than it is right now.
