Halberstam/Haraway Reading Response

I find both Haraway’s and Halberstam’s view on cyborgs and the way technology has affected women very interesting. Haraway’s reading is filled with metaphors and comparisons. I think it helped that I read Halberstam’s reading Haraway’s since she simplifies and explains parts of Haraway’s work in her own work. I really like how Halberstam’s reading connected both the readings together for me.

One of points I found interesting was when Haraway says, “I would rather be a cyborg than a goddess.” This goddess refers to this idealistic image given to women, how they should behave, ideal way to look, gender roles etc. And this cyborg is the outcome of what technology has done to feminism. In our readings, I would say they would both agree the female cyborg is somewhat robotic yet human at the same time. When I thought about whether or not I would want to be a goddess or  cyborg, I honestly didn’t know what to pick. Would I want to be oppressed into a role and image or would I want to be living a life that may not necessarily seem like a quality life where I would just focus on work. I ultimately picked the cyborg since I would probably already be considered one by Haraway with my dependence on technology.

It’s also interesting to see how cultural feminists see the automated gender as male science. The female cyborg is seen by some a symbol of male technological aggression against woman. I’ve never actually seen it that way and it’s quite interesting to see it from their lenses. People always say we live in a world created by men. These female cyborgs in a sense are being shaped by the development of technology which is essentially a male dominated field. I could see how people could see how these female cyborgs are being created by men essentially but I honestly think seeing technology as an aggression against women is entering paranoia.

I was also intrigued by Halberstam’s opening with the concerns of technology. The first concern of how computer may be taught to stimulate thought is already happening, but I’m not sure if it’s really much of a concern really. Robots will never be able to tears and simply emote like a human being would. There’s always the risk of a robot being too emotional and malfunctioning. The second concern being robots replacing human in the workplace. It simply doesn’t make sense for me that robots would eventually replace humans in the workplace. How would society even function? What do people do all day? How do people get money if they’re not working? All I can think about is unemployment skyrocketing and the government being totally against this idea.