Mikaela Benny

Professor Ristow
WRRH 333: Critical Reading Response 2
February 15th 2018

I think the figure or idea of a “cyborg” is a unique comparison and representation of

body, gender, identity and sexuality. As a metaphor a “cyborg” easily represents each of these

terms because of its fluidity and imaginative qualities. Social realities make the idea of a

“cyborg” possible in its quality of being ever changing.

In terms of body, a “cyborg” metaphor is probably the easiest to envision. When I first

start reading I envisioned a “cyborg” as some type of hybrid robot that more resembles a human

than anything else that was created by humans that could easily become much more intelligent.

Donna Haraway writes, “A cyborg is a a cybernetic organism, a hybrid of machine and

organism, a creature of social reality as well as a creature of fiction,” which allows the reader to

consider these words in order to use their own imagination to imagine the body of what a cyborg

may look like and embody. I think a “cyborg” has a body when people envision it as an idea and

this body that a cyborg both has and is represents is similar to that of a human body with motor

functions and purposes that the cyborg holds as well as actions the body can carry out for certain

situations.

A “cyborg” represents a fluid gender ideology as it is something that it both up for

interpretation and every changing. Gender is something that has become fluid and something that

is open for discussion, as is a “cyborg.” Gender is an ideology that people society places upon

themselves and people live up to and a cyborg is a good metaphor to represent gender in terms of

having ideas placed upon it because if it is something of someone else’s creation than there will

be an outside influence on it, although it is an ever changing object and is not something that is

clear and dry nor is it simply explained. Sexuality is something that can also be considered fluid
and I would argue that a “cyborg” has no sex and it is just simply what it is. When I say, “it just

simply is what it is” I mean that you cannot place any specific societal ideology or blanket

statement upon the “cyborg” because it is a scientific figure in which an imaginative process is

involved. The reading talks a lot about feminism and how that is constructed in society and in

relation to cyborgs I think it is up to social construction to see how society places ideas upon the

cyborg potentially in terms of what is feminine and what is not considered feminine both in

language and actions.

Identity is constructed differently within the framework of existing and emerging digital

technologies because it has become ever changing because technology keeps advancing. Identity

has become more fluid and there is more analysis that is possible because of emerging

technologies and how advances are made that change the way we look at and understand

concepts every single day. I believe a person’s identity or a cyborgs identity is built up and

dependent on social realities and the world that they have experienced. Your identity is a

reflection of everything unique you have experienced in your life and through the use of

technology a cyborgs identity could be very inclusive because as technology advances so will the

experiences that a cyborg will have access to.

In digital space I think anything can be fragmented or broken up into something smaller

for either analysis or for further explanation. The idea of a cyborg is something in which can be

analyzed and broken up more and more for further understanding of how it can work because as

a hybrid organism it is so complex.

Haraway, Donna. “A Cyborg Manifesto.” The Cybercultures Reader. Routledge, 2000. London.