Cybernetic bodies are beings of technology created to replicate and ultimately replace all human activities. Through these bodies, it is possible to create an ideal image of one gender or the other. This allows the dominant gender to rule over the opposite gender. According to Katherine Hayles, manmade cyborgs are autopoietic. Autopoietism is when humans alter and replicate something or someone to make the cyborg the way that the creator wants it (Hayles 199). This appears most prevalent in the movie of Stepford Wives, television series of Black Mirror, and the play of R.U.R.
Firstly, in Stepford Wives, the husbands of the story aim to create an ideal, submissive housewife. The husbands start a men’s committee that does not allow for women. Throughout the movie, it appears that these men are studying and analyzing what they prefer their wives to do and appear to be. When the cyborg visions of the wives are shown in the movie, they make themselves attractive for their husbands with makeup, 1950s housewife attire, and bigger boobs. The creation of these cyborgs show off what the husbands value most in their wives. This can be best described as a condensed image of both imagination and material reality (Haraway 292).
Additionally, this movie represents the gender and labor roles that were associated with the time the movie was made. During this time, more and more women wanted to enter the workforce. But the men wanted their wives to stay home, do housework, and take care of children. The men gained dominance over their wives by replacing them with submissive cyborgs. This relates back to setting of the autopoietic mindset.
Secondly, in R.U.R, dominance of men over women is also prevalent. Domin, Helena’s husband, is a bossy and interruptive husband to Helena. She is not allowed to have her own thoughts. Helena faces constant discrimination in the play. Helena was forced into a marriage with Domin. The males are dominant throuhghout this play. Even though the women, especially the character named Nana, predicts the death of all humans by cyborgs, but no one listens to her because of her gender. Since humans are no longer useful in a society where machines do all the work, the machines are tired of being bossed around and they revolt. The idea of women being dominated by men is as normal as eating a sandwich in this society. Lennard J. Davis best describes it as the fact that no area in contemporary life in which some idea of a norm, mean, or average has not been calculated (Davis 3). Davis says that it has been clear from past history that men are superior to women. For example, in the Stone Ages, men were the strong, bold, courageous hunters and breadwinners. Back then, male dominance was a part of human nature. Davis’ description creates questions of whether or not this is still true in today’s society.
Lastly, Black Mirror did not hint on as many gender and labor roles as R.U.R and Stepford Wives did. The main character, Ash, dies in a car crash. His wife, Martha, wants to somehow bring him back to life. Her friend, Sarah, recommends a software for her that allows her to communicate with him through past social media posts, text messages, and emails. It brings comfort to Martha. She takes it a step forward by requesting a cyborg form of him. Martha expects him to be exactly like the human version.
After spending time with him, she realizes he is not at all what she expected. She expected cyborg Ash to be an exact copy of him before he died, knowing everything they he knew without being any better or worse. It seemed like the cyborg Ash was not as mentally developed as a normal human. He made up for that with his instant access to the internet and sexual skills. Katherine Hayles said it best by saying, “In the posthuman, there are no essential differences or absolute demarcations between bodily existence and computer simulation, cybernetic mechanism and biological organism, robot teleology and human goals” (Hayles 3). Cyborg Ash is only doing the job he is programmed to do. Black Mirror is different from Stepford Wives and R.U.R in the sense that it describes the stereotypes of a man, not a woman. Ash is portrayed as the dominant male figure that is a loving husband and dominant lover, amongst other traits. It is also different in the sense that Martha was not at all happy with the autopoietic creation of a human. This is the opposite for Stepford Wives and R.U.R. Well, at least until all the humans were killed by the very machines they created in R.U.R.
The gender and labor roles described in these three cinematic pieces are unique and depicting. Being replaced by cyborgs is a realistic and frightening possibility for our future. This is the case in Stepford Wives and R.U.R. All three pieces went into a lot of detail describing the gender and labor issues specific to their time periods. Overall, these pieces gave us an outlook on a potential, realistic future while promoting awareness of how gender and labor issues were handled in their time periods.