Day Three: Humanity and Cyborg Theory

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by Rachel Baker

Today’s topic was cyborg theory and feminism. They may sound unrelated--we thought the same thing--but the writings of Donna Haraway suggest a much different perspective. Haraway believes that the discussion and discourse around cyborgs and future technology can be used as a feminist tool. She presents it herself in a way to introduce a new vision for a diverse, labelless society, free of harmful social constructs and obsessive categorization. 

Haraway claims that we are all, in a way, “cyborgs,” with how our modern technological society has already blurred the lines of “natural” and “cultural,” as well as “human” and “technology.” She also draws global connections from her "human=cyborg" theory, construing that the same conclusion can be drawn for other topics such as man vs woman; natural vs artificial--rationalizing that the disintegration of the binaries is the solution to both current and future societal disputes. 


In order to better understand her theory, our class watched a summary video further describing her work, and read various articles to dive deeper into these concepts. Afterward, we had our usual seminar, and then a short presentation in pairs where we discussed how cyborgs in popular culture such as Iron Man (Marvel) and Cyborg (Teen Titans) related to Haraway’s theory. To finish up the day, we built creative responses in our Minecraft world, inspired by our cyborg/feminism/postmodernism discussions during class, that we plan to finish and present tomorrow! 


 


This is a picture of Juan's building that sat above his recreation of Plato's cave.




Isa (right) takes a selfie with Rachel and a Skeleton under a tree.

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