Female Cyborgs in Film: Heeding the Siren’S Call

EXTENDED ABSTRACT - This paper adopts a visual consumption approach to consumer research, by analysing the role of cyborgs, especially female cyborgs, in film in order to interpret the ways in which these representations both mirror/reflect and shape possibilities at the gender/technology intersection. The analysis is structured around two guiding frameworks, the first a typology of fear of technology, and the second, the notion of a 'cyborg continuum.’ Borrowing from Leiss, a typology of (western) society’s fear of technology is developed that involves three inter-linked forms: 1) inversion of the machine/master relationship; 2) prosthetic fear/fear of death, and; 3) challenge to the social order. This is juxtaposed with the idea of a cyborg continuum, stretching from 'pure’ machine to 'pure’ human and composed of intermediate stages that represent varying forms of human-machine fusion and accord with the notion/metaphor of the cybernetic organism, or cyborg.

Citation:

Leighann Neilson (2004) ,"Female Cyborgs in Film: Heeding the Siren’S Call", in NA - Advances in Consumer Research Volume 31, eds. Barbara E. Kahn and Mary Frances Luce, Valdosta, GA : Association for Consumer Research, Pages: 158-158.