In our modern age, we have become more and more like robots every day. Society expects us to behave in certain ways as if we were programmed to do so. But we still consider ourselves humans since we are naturally expressive, contain emotions, and breathe oxygen. Or are we? N. Katherine Hayles defined a human being in ‘How We Became Posthuman’ as a person who simply interacts with computers. The Stepford Wives and the Black Mirror episode, “Be Right Back”, gave examples as to what Hayles was explaining, but one accepts the idea that the mind and the body are two separate entities while the other rejects it.
In comparing the android version of Ash in the Black Mirror episode, “Be Right Back”, to the androids in The Stepford Wives is that they were both situations out of desire to fulfill one’s needs. Martha dearly missed Ash after his unfortunate demise and desperately wanted to be with him. So, she resorted to creating a virtual embodiment of Ash to fulfill her needs. The men in Stepford, on the other hand, created android “improvements” of their wives in order to contain what they believed was the ideal version of a wife. These situations in the motives for creating the virtual embodiment of their significant others in their romantic and sexual values. These two examples emphasize in creating the ideal person they need to fulfill their personal desires. Martha and the men in Stepford had replaced their loved ones to retain their needs.
But what differentiates the two is how “Be Right Back” promotes the idea of dualism whereas The Stepford Wives rejects it. “Be Right Back” rejects dualism by the progress the android version of Ash takes to becoming almost the ideal version of the real Ash. The android Ash didn’t even need a body when he was communicating with Martha. By the time he is complete and with a body, he refuses to jump off a cliff when he is told to and pleads with Martha to let him live. Thus, a mind was perfectly recreated without needing to experience what the former mind was like.
The Stepford Wives accepts dualism through the assimilation process the women go through when they become androids. Initially, they go from independent to submissive towards their husbands. Joanna even remarks that if she stays, there will be someone that looks completely like her in every way, shape, and form will replace her. When the body dies out, so does the mind.
In comparing the situations between the The Stepford Wives and “Be Right Back”, they provide deeper understandings of Katherine Hayles’ concept of embodied virtuality. But they also provide two distinct views on Hayles’ concept of dualism in Embodied Virtuality and Dualism.”Be Right Back” supports the idea of dualism while The Stepford Wives rejects the idea, suggesting the body and mind are unwilling to exist without the other.
Works Cited:
- Hayles, Katherine. How We Became Posthuman: Virtual Bodies in Cybernetics, Literature, and Informatics. The University of Chicago Press. 1999
- The Stepford Wives. Dir. Bryan Forbes. Screenplay by William Goldman. Perf. Katherine Ross and Paula Prentiss. Palomar Pictures, n.d.
- “Be Right Back”. Black Mirrors.