Rereading Cyborg(?) Women: The Visual Rhetoric of Images of Cyborg (and Cyber) Bodies on the World Wide Web

Abstract

Haraway's "A Manifesto for Cyborgs" marked a turning point in theory analyzing the intersections of machine and body. In the manifesto, she defined a cyborg as "a cybernetic organism, a hybrid of machine and organism, a creature of social reality as well as a creature of fiction." Haraway argued for finding pleasure in the border zone between social and body reality - a zone where post-genderedness is a possibility, a zone free of the boundaries of public and private. Although a variety of theorists have utilized Haraway's work in arguing for the allure of the cyborg or the pleasures of cyborg discourse, few theorists have approached the cyborg as physical reality. As González notes, where visual representations of the cyborg do exist, rarely are traditional, gendered Western roles (and bodies) challenged. The machinic, while offering liberation from gender, usually serves merely to reinforce the gender dynamics currently at play. In this article, I discuss images of "cyborg" men and women found on the World Wide Web and argue that most visual representations of cyborg bodies are actually representations of "cyber" bodies, which reinforce contemporary notions of masculinity, femininity, heterosexuality, and power. I will also, however, discuss other images that represent the possibilities Haraway and other theorists envision cyborgs as providing. These departures from cyber bodies offer productive ruptures through which alternative constructions of cyborg bodies can be envisioned.