For many years, as a society, we have witnessed human-like machines replacing jobs that were done by humans. This is referred to the “cybernetic body.” The cybernetic body can be defined as integrating mechanical systems with humanity. In the movies and plays that we have focused on so far in class, the 1975 movie Stepford Wives, the play R.U.R., and the television series Black Mirror, they all are similar but have different perspectives on the cybernetic body.
The 1975 film Stepford Wives took place in the suburbans in which the women’s liberation movement of the 1970’s showed the illustration of the gender conflicts. In the movie, everything was picture perfect, from the way the woman’s body structure was shaped, their clothes, and the way they carried themselves. Having the women turn into robots in the movie showed how much power the men wanted over them and the reality in living in a community like Stepford; white picket fences and the identical house. Stepford Wives relates to the term cybernetic because in the movie, all the women were changed into robots because there was a certain society norm in which all the women had to abide by. The men wanted all the control and in order for that to happen, they were all transformed into a human-like machine.
The play R.U.R. was written around the time World War I was ending. In the play, the robots were treated as slaves because the humans would abuse their privilege of having someone doing their work for them. Although they weren’t human, they played an important role in the people live because they did everything for them. Comparing R.U.R to Stepford Wives; there is a huge difference. Stepford Wives praised the idea of women being robots but in R.U.R., the robots were treated as trash to the point where the overall goal was to kill all the humans off. But then you had characters like Helena and Dr. Gall who actually wanted the robots to be treated fairly and with respect.
An episode of Black Mirror showed a grieving woman who had just lost her partner. Since she was having so much trouble with moving on, she thought by having his body recreated would bring back the happiness in her life. But little did she know that the little things that Ash (the robot) was doing made her realize that she would never have the real him back. For instance when she told him to get out, he obeyed but her response was “the real Ash wouldn’t had tried leaving.” This proves that no matter how hard a robot tries to be human, it would never happen. It can do the labors that humans do but having actually traits of a human would possibly never happen.
Stepford Wives, R.U.R., and Black Mirror are all examples of how the cybernetic body works. Whether its from men wanted to be dominant (Stepford Wives) or to robots having human traits but not fully having human traits at the same time, it all comes down to the question on whether cybernetics are going to be apart of this society’s future. If so, what is the approach, would it be like Stepford Wives where the men were all dominant, R.U.R. where the robots were treated badly and they wanted all humans killed, or Black Mirror where they try to make robots have the physical characteristics of a human (reproduction)?