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The Representation of Women / Cyborgs

The Representation of Women / Cyborgs

Representation - to show something again 
Used to make the audience agree with the producer. Both the target audience and group being represented are affected.

What roles do women/synths adopt in HUMANS?
- Housewife / maid
- Slave
- Prostitute
- Sexualised
- Mother 
- Friend
- "Can we take her back if she's not pretty?"
- Caregiver
- Butler




"Texts convey their meanings through binary opposition" Evaluate this structuralist theory referring to set episode of HUMANS.
- Human vs Robot 
- Laura vs Anita (Motherhood)
- Niscka vs Fred (Prostitute vs manual labor"
- Niscka vs Anita (prostitute vs maid)
- Maddy vs Sophie (for and against synths)
- Freedom vs Slavery



Final scene montage:
- Working class male. Visits brothel. Aggressive, threatening. Binary opposition with Niscka (fringe, blonde, innocent?)

- Niscka. Dressed in lacy lingerie. Does whatever the man tell her. Prostitute. diegetic sound "anger, fear, pain". Close up of her eyes. Reminds us she is alive she is feeling something and she is feeling pain.
- Mother. Laura seen being sensitive with Sophie and giving her a toy. Anita goes to watch Sophie and looks tenderly on her. Holds Sophie. Kisses her forehead - affection. How is motherhood gained?
- Working class male Leo, in love, determined to find his friends.
- Laura. Suspicious of Anita. non-diegetic "they simply can't hurt us"
- Anita resembles an east asian woman - Hawkins family white British. own an east asian woman - maid.


MADONNA / Whore Complex 

Sigmund Freud developed a theory to explain men's anxiety towards women's sexuality, suggesting that men define women into one of two categories: Madonna (women he admires and respects) and the Whore (women he is attracted to and therefore disrespects).
Madonna - virtuous, nurturing, saintly and sexually repressed.
Whore - sensual, sexualised and desirable without purity



Anita. Dressed like a sci-fi nurse, not sexualised but sexually attractive. A Madonna.
Niscka. Forced to be a Whore, essentially raped. 


Donna Haraway - Cyborgs
Humans have become reliant on technology and it is altering every aspect of our lives. We could not live without it therefore we are cyborgs.

Gender Performativity
Gender is the hegemonic norms about what it means to be male or female. 
Male - Tough, Breadwinner, muscular, not emotional, brave, messy, swagger, leaders.
Female - Emotional, caring, weak, makeup, tidy, follower, 

Gender Conformity
Toby - licks his lips when seeing Anita, constructs him as stereotypical male.
Joe - messy,Laura instantly feels uncomfortable coming home seeing everything clean. However he is also the stay at home dad which is subversive.
Laura - wears makeup, doesn't stay at home which is subversive.
Synth in detectives home - "you're so strong" he is masculine and stereotypical.


bell hooks - Feminism for everyone.

How is "patriarchal oppression and the ideology of domination"?

Toby licking lips - sexual attraction but also possibility for sexual use. He is in control because his family owns her
White working class male in the brothel comes and pays to have sex with niscka, dominates her she has to do what he wants - possibly considered rape by audience?
Joe demonstrates dominance over Anita as her primary user - he bought her. 
Anita is east asian - racial profiling. 


Laura is "replaced" by a synth (domestically, maternally and eventually sexually).
Joe buys Anita. Primary user. Buying a woman for the purpose of house work.
Salesman is a male selling women - as are those who dictate the market and company.
First synth created by a man to replace a woman (his wife).
Niscka in brothel. She is not an equal. Barks orders.
Physio synth Simon is hypermasculine. Replaces Pete (detective) in his husband and caring role. 


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