Anxieties and artificial women: disassembling the pop culture gynoid
| dc.contributor.author | Fabian, Carly, author | |
| dc.contributor.author | Gibson, Katie L., advisor | |
| dc.contributor.author | Hughes, Kit, committee member | |
| dc.contributor.author | Quynn, Kristina, committee member | |
| dc.date.accessioned | 2019-01-07T17:19:02Z | |
| dc.date.available | 2020-01-03T17:19:53Z | |
| dc.date.issued | 2018 | |
| dc.description.abstract | This thesis analyzes the cultural meanings of the feminine-presenting robot, or gynoid, in three popular sci-fi texts: The Stepford Wives (1975), Ex Machina (2013), and Westworld (2017). Centralizing a critical feminist rhetorical approach, this thesis outlines the symbolic meaning of gynoids as representing cultural anxieties about women and technology historically and in each case study. This thesis draws from rhetorical analyses of media, sci-fi studies, and previously articulated meanings of the gynoid in order to discern how each text interacts with the gendered and technological concerns it presents. The author assesses how the text equips—or fails to equip—the public audience with motives for addressing those concerns. Prior to analysis, each chapter synthesizes popular and scholarly criticisms of the film or series and interacts with their temporal contexts. Each chapter unearths a unique interaction with the meanings of gynoid: The Stepford Wives performs necrophilic fetishism to alleviate anxieties about the Women's Liberation Movement; Ex Machina redirects technological anxieties towards the surveilling practices of tech industries, simultaneously punishing exploitive masculine fantasies; Westworld utilizes fantasies and anxieties cyclically in order to maximize its serial potential and appeal to impulses of its viewership, ultimately prescribing a rhetorical placebo. The conclusion synthesizes each chapter topically and ruminates on real-world implications. Overall, this thesis urges critical attention toward the gynoids' role in oppressive hierarchies onscreen and in reality. | |
| dc.format.medium | born digital | |
| dc.format.medium | masters theses | |
| dc.identifier | Fabian_colostate_0053N_14856.pdf | |
| dc.identifier.uri | https://hdl.handle.net/10217/193081 | |
| dc.language | English | |
| dc.language.iso | eng | |
| dc.publisher | Colorado State University. Libraries | |
| dc.relation.ispartof | 2000-2019 | |
| dc.rights | Copyright and other restrictions may apply. User is responsible for compliance with all applicable laws. For information about copyright law, please see https://libguides.colostate.edu/copyright. | |
| dc.subject | Ex Machina | |
| dc.subject | robots | |
| dc.subject | Westworld | |
| dc.subject | postmodernism | |
| dc.subject | digital | |
| dc.subject | The Stepford Wives | |
| dc.title | Anxieties and artificial women: disassembling the pop culture gynoid | |
| dc.type | Text | |
| dcterms.embargo.expires | 2020-01-03 | |
| dcterms.embargo.terms | 2020-01-03 | |
| dcterms.rights.dpla | This Item is protected by copyright and/or related rights (https://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/). You are free to use this Item in any way that is permitted by the copyright and related rights legislation that applies to your use. For other uses you need to obtain permission from the rights-holder(s). | |
| thesis.degree.discipline | Communication Studies | |
| thesis.degree.grantor | Colorado State University | |
| thesis.degree.level | Masters | |
| thesis.degree.name | Master of Arts (M.A.) |
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