Lincoln Hayes
Dr. Bory
Hum 103
27 October 2023
Pledged
With the hard-won recognition of their social and historical constitution, gender, race, and class cannot provide the basis for belief in “essential” unity. There is nothing about being “female” that naturally binds women. There is not even such a state as “being” female, itself a highly complex category constructed in contested sexual scientific discourses and other social practices. Gender, race, or class consciousness is an achievement forced on us by the terrible historical experience of the contradictory social realities of patriarchy, colonialism, and capitalism. (Haraway 14)
Donna Haraway was a zoologist who later became a professor at the university of California in Santa Cruz where she teaches feminist studies. Her experience in several intellectual fields give her a unique voice in her field that she helped to grow, feminist scientist. Haraway’s text “the Cyborg Manifesto” is a crucial part of her body of work because it of its contribution to feminist studies. The text aims to explore the inner workings of modern society through her definition of cyborg. Haraway defines cyborg as “a cybernetic organism, a hybrid of machine and organism, a creature of social reality as well as a creature of fiction” (Haraway 7). I selected the above passage from the Cyborg Manifesto because it encapsulates Haraway’s message very clearly and directly relates to her idea of modern cyborgs as creatures of social reality and of fiction.
Haraway argues that gender, race, and class consciousness are non-essential aspects of society created by the patriarchy, colonialism, and capitalism. Haraway states that these categories are forced onto society by these oppressive forces. Her use of the word “essential” in quotation marks implies her use of the word is sarcastic, as it is only essential within society due to the patriarchy, colonialism, and capitalism forcing them upon society. The categories of gender, race, and class are not essential at all, as there is nothing inherently natural too them. They are simply products of “the production of universal, totalizing theory… that misses most of reality, probably always, but certainly now” (Haraway 39). The “universal, totalizing theory” are based on “essential” unity, which binds groups of people together based on their cyborg characteristics. If a person is born with more melanin in their skin than others and is born with body parts that the patriarchy deems belong to the female gender, then society will treat this person according to the universal, totalizing theory that states this person is a dark-skinned woman. Haraway states that women and races are not unified because they are not born into a shared experience, everyone is unique. The categorization of humans is what allows for further oppression through gender, race, and classed based segregation and discrimination. This is especially true when oppressive forces like the patriarchy, colonialism, and capitalism have been and continue to be in power.
Haraway points out that there is nothing essential to society in terms of gender, race and class because there is nothing inherently natural about them. According to Haraway “there is not even such a state as ‘being’ female” (Haraway 14) because being female does not objectively mean anything. Female is a construct created through historical and social norms, formed by the patriarchy, colonialism and capitalism. These oppressive forces state that male and female are two, binary options of sex, a very universal, totalizing theory that binds groups of people together based on their body parts. Being female, according to society, means that people have certain specific body parts that only belong to females, which leads people to be raised and acclimated to society as female, a self-fulfilling prophecy where autonomy is lost, and identity is predetermined. Haraway later wrote “Up till now (once upon a time), female embodiment seemed to be given, organic, necessary; and female embodiment seemed to mean skill in mothering and its metaphoric extensions” (Haraway 38). These are the exact expectations that society has deemed that women are naturally born with and bonded through with their shared, essential tendencies. These characteristics are what constructs the fictional existence of the female, a fictional cyborg creature. Haraway writes that being female is “a highly complex category constructed in contested sexual scientific discords and other social practices” meaning that science and society cannot state that to be male or female is an objective category. Being female, according to science and society means having certain levels and ratios of testosterone and being “motherly”, an inherently subjective term. Haraway’s idea that female is a fictional cyborg creature is stated clearly when she wrote “Gender might not be global identity after all” (Haraway 38). Gender is a concept used by the patriarchy, colonialism, and capitalism to oppress people who fit into these catagories that they deem natural to society. The extent to which gender, race and class are maleable things that things over time is a testament to how subjective they really are. Haraway writes “white women, including socialist feminists discovered (i.e., were forced kicking and screaming to notice) the non-innocence of the category ‘woman.‘“ (Haraway 16). Haraway wrote this in order to shed light on how feminism has never been about women, it has mostly been about white women. The word woman is not “innocent” from discrimination because in relation to feminism it has always really meant white woman. The same can be said for the category of race. White is a complex term defined by history and society, and has no basis in science. White used to exclude Irish people, who are now considered white. Acknowledging the subjectivity of these “essential” societal categories sheds light on how the forces of the patriarchy, colonialism and capitalism have imposed false truths on how humans should perceive each other.
Haraways unique insight into modern cyborgs and society allow her readers to think beyond the societally imposed restrictions of thought and perception. People are people, not cyborgs of amalgamated shared traits that naturally define who they will become. Acknowledgment of the fallacies imposed by the historical and societal forces of patriarchy, colonialism and capitalism can lead to people seeing each other as unique individuals. The ability to be free of predetermined paths in society will allow people to be free from what Haraway argues is the heart of oppression in society.
Work Cited
Haraway, Donna J. The Cyborg Manifesto. the Socialist Review. 1985
