WOMN2205 – WEBLIOGRAPHY

Question 4: Donna Haraway claims ‘we are all cyborgs’. How has this idea been taken up by scholars since the 1980s?

Kyle Munkittrick. “On the importance of being a Cyborg Feminist”

H plus is an online magazine that focuses on modern trend changes. The magazine focuses on three areas: science, technology, and cultural changes. It is not peer reviewed so it is not the most reliable academic source. However, the author is currently a graduate student at New York University and is the program director for the IEET, a not for profit institute that researches debates about emerging technologies. Due to the authors credibility I thought he may be a credible scholarly source to use.

This article was published in 2009. The most current debate on cyborgs argues that technology has greatly improved day to day living. To survive in today’s world being connected to non-human things, e.g. computers, is part of being Human. Humans are living much longer, women have much greater power over birth control and it is much easier for people to change their physical sexuality. However, recognising being a cyborg does not change the cultural restrictions that entrap individuals. Improved technology does not change societies mind set. To change sexuality legally is a mind field which requires expert opinion. Why should someone’s sexuality be determined by someone else’s opinion? Many of the cultural restrictions that existed in the 1980’s when Donna Haraway had written her manifesto still exist in 2009.

(Words: 213)

Jonathan Marshall. “The Online Body Breaks Out? Asence, Ghosts, Cyborgs, Gender, Polarity and Politics.”

Fibre culture journal is a peer reviewed academic journal. The writer is an academic, Jonathan Marshall, from the University of Technology, Sydney. This would be a source any student would use in an essay because experts in the field have academically reviewed it. The ability to be free to the public allows for more international scrutiny and not just a select group of academics who subscribe to the journal. However, it is important to read articles from many angles because each writer and peer reviewer are constructed and cannot consider all the arguments.

Haraway argued that “cyborgs are post-gendered”. However, this article argues that cyborgs are heavily constructed through Gender. Haraway is accused of creating the cyborg as a political function to cross boundaries and nothing else. The problem with creating the definition of cyborg is that it cancels out other possibilities of being. Nearly 20 years since Haraway’s manifesto academics still largely believe that it is impossible to cancel out gender when considering the creation of cyborgs as part of our human identity. Essentially, humans don’t want to change their rigid westernised view of being human because what they know now makes them feel safe. For the majority, many still see human as being man or woman and that computers/technology are not part of the human body. The problem with the Cyborg is it has no boundaries. At what point do we stop being human?

(Words: 235)

Audrey Watters. “Ada Lovelace Day Post: I’d (Still) Rather Be A Cyborg.”

This is a blog entry by Audrey Watters who is a technology journalist. She completed her “undergraduate honor’s thesis in on feminist science fiction” but her masters degree is based on folklore. Folklore has little connection to cyborg and technology. She isn’t an expert in the field of technology or cyborgs, she therefore has little academic authority.

The problem with this blog entry is there is minimal reference to other academic sources. The blog is written from entirely her personal point of view and her experience of reading Haraway’s manifesto. Also, her blog is not reviewed by anyone. I would most likely not use this as an academic source because it is not anonymously peer reviewed by other academics in the field and not referencing other sources.

Essentially, this blog is a glowing review of Donna Haraway and her manifesto. She argues that Haraway is still seen as a female body despite her argument about a post-gendered world by becoming cyborgs. Audrey Watters explains she experiences this discrimination despite spending most of her time online and living on the internet. She concludes, that the white western view of binaries between the sexes, man versus woman, is still the dominant view which constrains many professionals in her field, online blogging. Haraway’s cyborg definition has had little impact on changing and challenging the western capitalist belief systems on definition of identity.

(Words: 229)

Madeline Ashby. “Ownership, authority, and the body: Does antifanfic sentiment reflect posthuman anxiety?”

Transformative works and culture is a free access online academic journal. The website specifies in the policy section that all authors must use their “professional names and not fan pseudonyms”. Once again, all articles are anonymously peer reviewed. It is a well organised journal with an articles archive. The author, Madeline Ashby, is an academic at the university of York, Toronto, and a science fiction writer. As author of science fiction she continuously uses the cyborg metaphor in her fictional and academic writing. Her article refers to other academic arguments to support her thesis. The article is objectively edited and the author has a strong research history in cyborgs which would make this a well researched scholarly article to use in an essay.

The vast majority of scholars have largely rejected Haraway’s theory “we are all cyborgs”. This is because western society has so much emphasis on the body and origins of humans not the lived experienced through technology and machines. However, Haraway’s theory is being kept alive by science fiction. Examples of three fictional texts are used to show how the hero is a female who rejects her role to reproduce and overtakes the masculine corporation that has laid claim to ownership over her body.
(Words: 206)

Amber Casey. “About: Why Cyborg Anthropology?”

This site is dedicated to collating research on cyborg anthropology. Cyborg anthropology “view[s] that most of modern human life is a product of both human and non-human objects”. It is a great starting point for looking for basic definitions of cyborg, the different types of cyborg and academic sources for research. It contains well organized lists and links to all academic work on humans being cyborgs. It was through this site I found the fibre culture journal. I would use this site because have no real understanding on the current understanding of cyborgs and the site explains complex definitions in a more simplified way instead of having to read a whole journal article.

However, as a researcher you must be weary it is a .com site which means it is not a educational website. On the side of the web page are ads by Google advertising training courses. It makes me suspicious as to where the funding comes from to support the site because this can influence the content that is uploaded. Also, Amber Case is the only person who manages the sight. One person means only one persons point of view on managing content of the site which for scholars would find extremely bias. I would be cautious as using as primary source in an essay because the content of the sight is not peer reviewed by objective anonymous academics who are experts in cyborg anthropology.
(Words: 237)

Reference List

Ashby, Madeline. “Ownership, authority, and the body: Does antifanfic sentiment reflect posthuman anxiety?” Transformative Works and Cultures, 1 (2008). http://journal.transformativeworks.org/index.php/twc/article/view/40/49 (accessed 15 September).

Case, Amber. “About: Why Cyborg Anthropology?” Cyborg Anthropology site, May 15 2010. http://www.cyborganthropology.com/About (accessed 16 September 2010).
Marshall, Jonathan. “The Online Body Breaks Out? Asence, Ghosts, Cyborgs, Gender, Polarity and Politics.” The Fibreculture Journal, 3 (2004). http://three.fibreculturejournal.org/fcj-016-the-online-body-breaks-out-asence-ghosts-cyborgs-gender-polarity-and-politics/ (accessed 13 September 2010).

Munkittirck, Kyle.“On the importance of being a Cyborg Feminist,” in H+ Magazine, ed. R.U. Sirius, July 21 2009. href="http://www.hplusmagazine.com/articles/politics/importance-being-cyborg-feminist">http://www.hplusmagazine.com/articles/politics/importance-being-cyborg-feminist> (accessed 12 September 2010).

Watters, Audrey. “Ada Lovelace Day Post: I’d (Still) Rather Be A Cyborg.” Audrey Watters Blog, March 24 2010. http://www.audreywatters.com/2010/03/24/ada-lovelace-day-post-id-still-rather-be-a-cyborg/ (accessed 14 September 2010).