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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:

1. Hayles, Katherine. How We Became Posthuman: Virtual Bodies in Cybernetics, Literature, and Informatics. The University of Chicago Press. 1999
2. The Stepford Wives. Dir. Bryan Forbes. Screenplay by William Goldman. Perf. Katherine Ross and Paula Prentiss. Palomar Pictures, n.d.
3. “Be Right Back”. Black Mirrors.

The idea of embodied virtuality is perceived very differently between the two examples given. The Black Mirror episode “Be Right Back” seems to support the ida of dualism, that the mind and the body are two separate entities that can survive without the other. However, The Stepford Wives seems to reject this idea, ultimately suggesting that the body and mind are wholly tied and codependent, not being able to exist without the other.

In “Be Right Back“, Ash dies and his wife Martha uses his social media, personal videos and photos to recreate her husband. First, it just texts, than it talks with his voice, and later it creates himself in his body. At one point, when he is still just a voice on the phone, Martha drops her phone, breaking it. However, Ash’s alternate self is still intact because, as he says, “I’m not in there. I’m remote. I’m in the cloud.” Proving that his consciousness is not biologically tied. 

However, for most of the episode, it s unclear whether or not he is actually of the same consciousness as the actual human Ash. However, this is proved at the end of story. Martha tells the artificial Ash to jump off of a cliff, and at first he is going to comply, but then he begins pleading for her to let him live, declaring that he is scared to die and doesn’t want to leave her, implying that he has now taken on the actual consciousness he was initially made to imitate.

The Stepford Wives takes a much different view on the issue. The women in the small town go from being lively, independent woman to being boring, submissive housewives who do everything their husbands tell them to do. It is clear that in this story that when they are assimilated they are no longer themselves. This is summed up at one point when the protagonist, Joanna, “I won’t be here when you get back, don’t you see?  There’ll be somebody with my name, and she’ll cook and clean like crazy, but she won’t take pictures, and she won’t be me!” That once the body dies, the mind goes with it. And sure enough, her very fears are confirmed at the end of the film, when she is replaced by her submissive android counterpoint.

So these two examples represent two very different views on the subject of Embodied Virtuality and Dualism. One supporting the idea of dualism and the other ejecting it in favor of a biological connection between mind and body. Oddly enough though, both have sexual connotations. In Stepford it’s more blatant, with one of the primary intentions of the Men’s Association being to sexually dominate their wives. But this also occurs, albeit less prominently, in Black Mirror. Martha initiates sex with the now embodied Ash, where she discovers that he is better at sex than the human Ash was, and they procede to have sex several times. Granted , unlike The Stepford Wives, sex was not the primary or even secondary goal in replacing Ash, but merely an aspect that came about as a result of that. It speaks volumes that in fiction a man would be replaced to fill n emotional void whereas a woman would be replaced for sex and power.

Works Cited:

1.  Black Mirror “Be Right Back”  Brooker, Charlie. BBC. Television.
2. The Stepford Wives. Screenplay by William Goldman. Paramount, 1975. Film.
3. Hayles, Katherine. How We Became Posthuman: Virtual Bodies in Cybernetics, Literature, and Informatics. The University of Chicago Press. 1999.