Webliography

Guiding question:

If science fiction is a genre that imagines our future, what happens to gender and race?

Source 1:

Lavender III, Isiah. “Technicity: AI and Cyborg Ethnicity in The Matrix.” Extrapolation 45, no. 4 (2006): 437-458. (accessed 6 Sept. 2010)

In Lavender III’s analysis of The Matrix, he suggests that even in a post-human, highly technological future, as the one depicted in the film, the issue of ethnicity and race is still prevalent. However, in the film’s futuristic setting, the concepts of ethnicity and race have entirely new meanings. By arguing that ethnicity is a social invention whose main purpose is to “establish differences between groups of people and to represent the most essential arrangement of social relationships,” he identified new ethnicities within the movie (Lavender III 439). Coining the term technicity to address how humanity was greatly changed by technology in the film, he described new groups of post-humans and machines: AI (artificial intelligence), cyborgs (humans who can “hack” into the AI’s artificial world construct), and natural-born humans. To further point out these technicities, Lavender examined three factors that categorized these groups, which are their naming, the prophecies shared within groups, and their visual coding. Given these new technicities, the author gave examples of racism, discrimination, and battles for supremacy between these groups---past and present issues given a futuristic twist.

Source 2:

Hurd, Denise Alessandria. “The Monster Inside: 19th Century Racial Constructs in the 24th Century Mythos of Star Trek.” Journal of Popular Culture 31, no.1 (1997): 23-35. (accessed 6 Sept. 2010)

Hurd points out the use of the nineteenth century image of The Tragic Mulatto stereotype in the characterization of “hybrids” in Star Trek. The term mulatto refers to a person of “mixed Caucasian and African-American ancestry” (Hurd 24). In the past, mulattoes were believed to inherit the worst attributes of its parent races. Since a mulatto is neither black nor white, he/she doesn’t belong to either race. Moreover, the mulatto stereotype has two variations: male and female. The male mulatto is destined to become a savage and dangerous individual while the female mulatto is destined to suffer depression and degradation. These stereotyping is evident in the Star Trek universe, beginning with Star Trek: The Original Series’ Spock, who is half-human, half-Vulcan, down to Star Trek: The Next Generation’s Deanna Troi, who is half-human, half-Betazoid. The commonality among these hybrid characters is that they always have an inner struggle with the “more evil” parts of themselves. Throughout the series, hybrid characters (whether half-human/half-alien or a combination of both alien species) are portrayed to be biologically inclined to become “monsters.” They are alienated from both their parents’ races and suffer discrimination from both sides. Thus in a supposedly egalitarian future, nineteenth-century racial prejudices are still alive.

Source 3:

Miller, Jim. “Post-Apocalyptic Hoping: Octavia Butler’s Dystopian/Utopian Vision.” Science Fiction Studies 25, no.2 (1998): 336-360. (accessed 5 Sept. 2010)

In Miller’s essay, he argues that Octavia Butler’s XENOGENESIS trilogy and Parable of the Sower novels are examples of critical dystopia; that is “a narrative which points to the socio-historic causes of the dystopian elements of our culture rather than one which merely reveals the symptoms” (Miller 360). Octavia Butler was an African-American writer who through her work challenges “not only patriarchal myths, but also capitalist myths, racial myths, and feminist utopian myths.” Miller made a thorough analysis of Butler’s two literary works by reviewing/comparing other reviews of her novels, including those of Donna Haraway, Michelle Erica Green, and Hoda M. Zaki. In her novels, Butler presents the reader with a postmodern future ruined by nuclear war, class friction, environmental disasters, gender oppression, racism, and xenophobia. Miller clearly stated the racial (human and alien alike) and sex/gender conflicts in the novels, especially the debate on biology versus indoctrination as the cause of male human violence and xenophobia and the Man-the-Hunter and Woman-the-Gatherer gender roles. The novels’ key characters, notably of African-American descent and female, must then overcome or resolve these socio-historic problems which caused the human civilization’s collapse in order to survive and create a better world. Miller asserts that Butler “does not offer a full-blown utopian ‘blueprint’ in her work, but rather a post apocalyptic hoping informed by the lessons of the past” (336).

Source 4:

Silvio, Carl. “Refiguring the Radical Cyborg in Mamoru Oshii’s Ghost in the Shell.” Science Fiction Studies 26, no. 1 (1999): 54-72. (accessed 5 Sept. 2010)

The Japanese anime Ghost in the Shell’s setting is in the year 2029. The film’s protagonist is Major Motoko Kusanagi, a female cyborg working as a special agent for Section Nine. Her body is a combination of organic tissue and machine, therefore giving her superb strength, as well as enhanced senses and reflexes. The film’s antagonist is The Puppet Master or Project 2051, a sentient computer program. In his essay, Silvio brought forth Donna Haraway’s image of a cyborg and its “liberatory possibilities.” Haraway’s cyborg was supposed to be a “representational figure that embodies the capacity of information technologies to erase gender and racial boundaries and the structures of oppression which have historically accompanied them” (Silvio 54). However, in Ghost in the Shell, Major Kusanagi, is still under the control of the organization that created her, Megatech, the corporation that produces high-tech cyborg shells. In the film’s climax, Major Kusanagi and The Puppet Master “merged” their consciousness to produce an offspring that is entirely free from the control of the organizations that made them. This, the author explains, is a typical patriarchal coding, the designation of the female body for reproduction. Furthermore, it is the author’s contention that although the protagonist was presented as an empowered female, this ideal is still hampered by the objectification of her body in the film.

Source 5:

Edwards, Kim. “Defying Androgyny and Bending Gender: The Matrix.” Screen Education 50 (2008):117-122.

(accessed 7 Sept. 2010)

The article provides an interesting insight on the use of androgynous imaging in The Matrix. Edwards enumerated scenes in the film that play on mistaken gender identities, much attention was given to the now-famous introduction scene of Trinity (Carrie-Anne Moss). The author also highlighted the “feminization” of the film’s lead character Neo (Keanu Reeves), explaining that portraying Neo as “passive and virginal,” especially in the interrogation scene with Agent Smith (Hugo Weaving), go against the formulaic hero identity. The androgynous ambiguity of the rebels marks them as human compared to the overt masculinity (Agents) and femininity (The Woman in Red, The Oracle) of the machines. Thus, according to Edwards, the film unveils a future where concepts of gender are “fluid and transcendent” (118).