Gender, Technology, and Cyborgs

By Megan Hasenwinkel

Introduction

One way to explore the implications of technology and gender is through the texts of science fiction. Science fiction has always been interested in how technology affects humanity. In fact, one definition of science fiction is, "the literary [or textual] investigation of the relationship between humanity and technology, and (thus) of the myriad kinds of change produced by science and technology." (Leblanc, 2)

More recently there has been a collection of texts that use science fiction to explore our conceptions of gender and sexuality, most notably since the modern Women's Movement of the 1970s. Comparing feminist science fiction with cyberpunk; the genre that reacted to the influence of feminist science fiction; creates an interesting dichotomy to use for exploring the issues of gender and technology in our society.