The rise of the Cyborg? Week 10 Embodiment & Feminist Theory

Recap Considered how embodiment is an organising structure which ‘values’ some bodies more than others Look at how bodies are always constructed and ‘dressed’ through markers of social divisions Considered the social construction of emotions

Outline Consider technological bodies Look at cyberspace and the metaphor of the cyborg Consider the commodification of bodies and body parts

Bodies and Technology Sociology has often taken account of the significance of technology for social relationships –Marx focused on shift from hand loom to steam driven machines But today technology is seen as growing in significance –Reconstructing organic bodies

Talk to your neighbour about how technology might be reconfiguring organic bodies

Bodies and Technology Ideas are currently focused on two particular areas 1.The advent of cyberspace »Possibility of refiguring identities and relationships 2. The rise of the ‘cyborg’ »The increasing use of inorganic materials in bodies

Cyberspace Shilling points out how supporters of cyberspace see it as a way of overcoming social divides: –Distance –Divisions –Identities Individuals can seek out virtual communities to support them

Cyberspace Cyberspace offers a chance to overcome traditional social barriers –Old/young –White/Black –Male/female But chosen identities are based on fixed notions from the ‘real’ world

Virtual Communities Virtual communities can help support isolated individuals (online cancer groups) They can connect individuals wishing to challenge institutions (pressure groups) But can also support problematic groups –Paedophiles and pornography –Racist groups –Pro-anorexia and pro-suicide

Think about the way that the cyberspace can support or challenge social divisions? Do you think it is radically changing society?

The rise of the Cyborg? The metaphor of the Cyborg arises from science fiction – the mixing of human and machine Again the idea is not completely new but the scale is changing –Pacemakers –Silicon implants –Dialysis

The rise of the Cyborg? Haraway argues that the integration of bodies and machines is growing within technoscience Modern miracles to overcome Disease Ageing Infertility Genetically modified animals are routinely breed and patented

New World Order? Yet at the same time increasing numbers of bodies are dispossessed Attempts to patent the genotype of indigenous peoples Herbal understandings bought and sold The hungry and dying ‘underdeveloped’ are largely ignored

Is it ethical for human genotype to be patented?

Human Trade Scheper-Hughes argues that there is a growing trade in humans and body parts –Trafficking of people for work –Buying babies for ‘adoption’ –Human organs for transplantation Again, this is not a new phenomenon –Slavery, Bonded labour –‘Relics’ and ‘Grave robbing’

Trading developments Scheper-Hughes argues that although there are connections to the past this is a new trade The trade has shifted from the dead to the living It is a movement through social hierarchies –From the poor to the rich –From the third world to the first

Kidney trade Kidneys are an example of the new trade in body parts. Kidneys are bought and sold all over the world both legally and illegally. Recipients have the economic power to travel and pay for their life to be extended. Donors benefit from the money

Gift of life? Kidneys are sold as a ‘gift of life’ but is it a a ‘gift of death? Donors do benefit in the short term from the money Long term health risks: –Hypertension –Kidney Failure –Restricted lifestyle recommended (no contact sports or high risk manual labour) Little post-operative care and unhealthy living conditions

Eggs wanted? Increasing numbers of poorer women are also selling their eggs/bodies to unfertile couples –Egg donation/surrogacy seen as an altruistic gesture –But side effects from fertility drugs common –Maybe increased risk of infertility and cancer in donors –Deaths are rare, but can happen

Should the buying and selling of human body parts be allowed? If so, what safeguards can be put in place?

Summary Technology has always impacted on social relationships The development of cyberspace and the use of technology within bodies means that technology may be having a greater impact today The growing commodification of bodies/body parts is part of this process