Engendering The Cyborg: The Movie Ex Machina (2015)

Student’s Name:
Instructor’s Name:
Course:
Date:
Engendering the Cyborg
Ex Machina is a thought-provoking science fiction film that is apparently about robot consciousness and the potential of artificially intelligent life. This paper addresses the question: what are the gender dynamics at work in the movie Ex Machina (2015), and how do these issues reflect upon problems of sexism that face today’s technological society? The method of thinking through this question entails analysis of evidence and using Heather Watson’s essay to understand the issues of gender in the film. Thesis statement: this paper argues that Ex Machina (2015) portrays women as sex objects who are used and manipulated by men in the society. It also highlights that women are inferior to men. In so doing, the film supports and perpetuates gender stereotypes. This line of inquiry matters since it would shed light on how the issue of gender stereotyping and objectification of women is portrayed by technologists through artificial intelligence and robotics in the tech sector.
The theoretical concept that can be utilized in exploring what is occurring in Ex Machina is the sexual objectification concept. According to this concept, sexual objectification takes place when an individual is identified by his/her sexual function or sexual body parts. The person loses his/her identity and is exclusively identified by their body’s physical characteristics. Recognizing the individual in this way is aimed at bringing enjoyment to other people. In addition, this recognition is aimed at making the individual serve as a sexual object for the society (Barbara and Roberts 177). The sexual objectification concept, particularly the objectification of women, is a crucial idea in feminist theory. A lot of feminists consider sexual objectification as something that is awful, appalling, unacceptable, and contributing to the issue of gender inequality in today’s society (Szymanski, Moffitt and Carr 13).
Ava, who is a female robot in the film, is imbued with an attractive female form and a sophisticated brain. The film has a few major problems with regard to how it presents the gendered future: all robots in this movie appear as women whereas all humans are men. In this respect, Ex Machina clearly perpetuates further feminization of technology. The robot was created by Nathan, who is a rich and eccentric inventor. Nathan invited Caleb, his colleague, to examine Ava the robot (Garland). Nathan made Ava in his likeness as well as to his liking, with the body of a porn star and brainpower of algorithmic search. She has been custom-built in particular to match the internet porn preferences of Caleb. A disturbing realization is that at least for Nathan, the true test of Ava’s intelligence might, in fact, be her capability of arousing the affections of Caleb. In this way, Caleb and Nathan consider Ava as a sexual object. In addition, the body of Ava is very sexualized and transparent, which compel viewers, along with Caleb, to gaze inside of her, as though her body does not have any boundary. Caleb at one point wondered why there is a large concentration of sensors between Ava’s legs, which Nathan mentioned it was to enhance Ava’s sexual pleasure just like an actual woman. This clearly demonstrates that these men are identifying Ava by her sexual parts and her sexual function as per the sexual objectification theory. This is a concept that Mulvey (3) has addressed in her work. She noted that in some films, the woman is displayed for the enjoyment and gaze of me. Women are looked and exhibited, with their appearance coded for erotic and visual impact. A woman being displayed as sexual object for men, as Mulvey (4) pointed out, is the leit-motif of erotic spectacle. The woman holds the look, plays to, and signifies men’s desire (Mulvey 4).
She lacks free choice: her creator programmed gender into her system, just as culture has programmed people to live in a world that is defined by a binary gendered system. The subject of female robots being depicted in artificial intelligence as lacking free choice has also been echoed by Walton (36) who mentioned that the cyborg sphere of existence is another place often portrayed as feminine in which women are confined in a docile servitude and they lose their human freedom. The very premise of this film instigates a battle of the sexes, which proved to be contentious. As he was examining Ava, Caleb starts falling in love with it, and he becomes more and more appalled by the idea that the robot’s creator is keeping it as his prisoner and possible sex slave. It is of note that Nathan had created a robot previously called Kyoko which he kept as a sex slave. He first made Kyoko before making Ava. The fact that Nathan uses these female robots as sex slaves denotes that he actually identifies them by their sexual function, which is to satisfy men’s sexual desires. In essence, the film links the desire of men to create with the more primeval male desire of procreating. The male characters in this film, mainly Caleb and Nathan, are sexist and blinkered in how they relate to Ava, who is presented to viewers and to Caleb as an enticing mystery.
The cyborg figures that Walton (35) is talking about reaffirm conventional gender norms. The cyborgs are present everywhere. They are active and working to continue the representational practices by which gender is permanently i...