Introduction
What is posthumanism? As the name might imply the concept of posthumanism is essentially the next step, so to speak, in the human nature. A transcendence, of shorts, of mankind. This could take various forms, be it from feasible and current ways such as genetically engineered food, prosthetics due to injury to far-off and futuristic concepts such as cyborg technologies (prosthetics for the purpose of body or mind enhancement rather than appliance to amputees), digital preservation of our conscience (even after death) and even the achievement of parapsychology concepts such as telekinesis, mind reading etc.
The concept has been further discussed and explored by Italo-Australian philosopher and feminist scholar Rosi Braidotti in her, aptly named, book The Posthuman1, in which she states that despite the set term of conservative and oftentimes religious societies of what human and humanity is we have in fact achieved the deconstruction of that with the help of technology and progress made in society as well as the passage of various periods in post-history. Braidotti calls herself an “anti-humanist” and mainly tackles feminist concepts such as the crumbling of gender roles,
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This element of posthumanism is represented as a hostile entity set to bring harm to the cause of our protagonists, rather than being an evolution of a human being or an improvement of the human nature. Indeed, as stated by Elaine L. Graham in her book Representations of the post/human: Monsters, aliens, and others in popular culture2, it is in fact a symbolism for the dehumanization process that is brought by the tyrannical regime of Metropolis as they treat the lower class and the workers that keep Metropolis moving in the contrasting underground, as less than human or even nothing like human at all. In the beginning we can see the workers stacked up and moving in a stiff manner not unlike a robot following
“Dehumanized” by Mark Slouka explores the issue of our nation’s education and how science and math are being used to primarily teach students about business and capitalism. Although I believe that students should have a good understanding of economics for the sake of their future. I, like Mark Slouka, believe that the humanities should be taught and accepted in our schools to help students further their education.
Rampton, M. (2008, September 1). The Three Waves of Feminism. - Fall 2008. Retrieved May 28, 2014, http://www.pacificu.edu/magazine_archives/2008/fall/echoes/feminism.cfm
Gender Trouble published in 1990 by Judith Butler, argues that feminism was and still relaying on the presumption that ‘women’ a...
Gender has played specific roles in societies all over the place. Men are usually seen as the dominant gender and therefore appear to be more important to society but women still have an important role. It was not that long ago that women did not have many rights or play an important role at all. In America, laws were put in place to make men and women equal and today many women have filled jobs thought of as a man’s job but there is still a common thought of women being less important in society than men. Before deciding if a woman’s role in society is complimentary or not, the role of all humans must be examined. A woman could appear to have a terrible role but maybe that’s because everybody has a terrible role in that type of society. Same
Nancy Fraser (2013) writes the dilemma in the second wave feminism in the middle of contemporary capitalism. In her book, she mentioned a scenario of second wave feminism in three acts; first, represents the moment when the feminist joined radical movement to transform society through uncovering gender injustice and capitalism 's androcentrism. Second, she outlines with regret, is a change from redistribution to recognition and difference and a shift to political identity that risk to support neoliberalism through effort to build a free market society. Lastly, a recovery of the movement. Fraser contends for a reinvigorated feminism to join other emancipatory forces, so they are ready to address the global monetary crisis and develop democratic control (Fraser, 2013:
Conceptualizations of the public and the private have always been central to the politics of second-wave feminism. The slogan, "the personal is political," implied that private life was often the site, if not the cause, of women's oppression. In 1974, some of the authors of Woman, Culture and Society (Lamphere and Rosaldo 1974), one of the founding texts of academic feminism, asserted that the universal cause of women's oppression lay in their confinement to the domestic sphere. Since that time, anthropologists have modified and complicated their assertions about the private. 1 Many other scholars have turned to confronting the meaning of the public. Joan Landes's anthology represents an important stage in this development.
Sounds pretty science-fiction based right? Well, to those who follow the Transhumanist philosophy, a “utopian” world could be a reality. Susan Schneider a philosophy professor at University of Pennsylvania defines Transhumanism as a “philosophical, cultural, and political movement which holds that the human species is now only in a comparatively early phase and that its very evolution will be altered by developing technologies” (271). In simple terms, transhumanists believe that the human species is in its early phase. Our species is a work in progress and our evolution will be altered by advancing technologies. With these advancements in technology, transhumanists have optimistic plans about the future. Transhumanists hope that as our current technology advances we will soon be able to create superhumans or “posthumans”. According to the World Tanshumanist Association a...
Second wave feminism has proved to have an intense effect on the western societies. The essay second wave feminism focuses on a wide range of issues of women such as work place discrimination, women education, reproduction and many others. Second wave feminists can be grouped into integrationists and radical feminists. The essay explains about the differences between these two groups, the role of women in the society and the benchmarks women have set up regarding gender equality. Women have replaced the old scenario in which women were treated as objects of male desires and needs and led to independent and equal participation along with men (Beauvoir, 1952).
Throughout history our understanding of the world has been manufactured through the judgment of human beings. The overall change and shift in paradigms can be explained by social construction theory. An article written by Carole S. Vance discusses the topic of social construction theory and illustrates how it impacts gender roles. Social construction can be defined as: a critical subject of reality that analyzes the ideas of a particular group or culture based on society and the aspects of society (education, religion, government etc.) Another article “Feminist Critiques of the Public/Private Dichotomy” written by Carole Pateman explains how men had placed women in a hypothetical bubble that is dominated by men. Men have always been looked
Women embedded with the Sisterhood wave revolted against their once confined roles to embrace themselves as intelligent, sexual, and powerful creatures of God. These were the warriors of femininity: the ones willing to lay it all on the line to feel a sense of liberation as a female community. Theses women become so frustrating with the conditioning of their bodies to be docile they ended up dooming themselves to their own inwardness. Third wave feminism is rooted in the variety of women as equals to all genders. I identify this as the Coequal wave. Woman are not placing themselves on a higher elevated scale than men but to simply be accepted as equals no matter what race, nationality, or gender differences (149-150). These three waves are still alive and thriving in our world today, however, they are far from working in a cohesive manner in a patriarchal society. Theorist Simone De Beauvoir writes in her manifesto “The Second Sex”, “Men need not bother themselves with alleviating the pains and the burdens that physiologically are women’s lot, since these are “intended by Nature”
...tor, or a second type of man that is built against nature and possess super human powers. Although these changes are incorporating machine into man, the purpose is to restore or replicate normal biological processes in reality, and not create the man envisioned in the works of science fictions.
Is this the Utopian future where all things are perfected to the point that the world itself is perfect? Or is it the Dystopian future where a feeding tube is implanted straight into a person's stomach so that this person does not need to make any decision for his or herself. What has come of “the Land of the Free, and the Home of the Brave” when that the thing that is to be seen is vanity and self promotion. Is this mankind destruction? Are men and women going to become more and more apathetic to what is happening around them? Will it not matter as long as they receive their daily tips on how to stay beautiful? At some Point men and women must stand up for what they believe in. They must stand against the Walmarts of the world, Because if
Transhumanism is a philosophy based on the technologies of genetics, nanotechnology, and robotics (GNR), and artificial intelligence that argues for the transcendence of human limitations by harnessing the power of science and technology to an advantage. Transhumanism is also used to denote a philosophical field that examines the possibilities and ethics of such dramatic technological change as represented by GNR and artificial intelligence. With the idea of transhumanism is today’s world, there is a very obvious conflict. There are always two sides to an argument and you could definitely say that both sides of transhumanism both state some very good points. I’d say my stance in this whole argument is somewhere in between both sides because
Postfeminism promises the liberation of individual women. It is a reaction against some discerned contradiction and lack of third wave feminism. This is also known as “fourth wave feminism” and it is a wide range of reacting to feminism. The term was used in Susan Bolotin’s article “Voice of the Post- Feminist Generation” in 1982 and was published in New York Times Magazine. In literature, it can be divided into three concept Firstly, post feminism is seen as a ‘political position’ that is exhibited to feminist facing challenges, or secondly, as a historical change within feminism or thirdly, as a reaction against feminism where a celebration of neoconservative, values is
Women have always been essential to society. Fifty to seventy years ago, a woman was no more than a house wife, caregiver, and at their husbands beck and call. Women had no personal opinion, no voice, and no freedom. They were suppressed by the sociable beliefs of man. A woman’s respectable place was always behind the masculine frame of a man. In the past a woman’s inferiority was not voluntary but instilled by elder women, and/or force. Many, would like to know why? Why was a woman such a threat to a man? Was it just about man’s ability to control, and overpower a woman, or was there a serious threat? Well, everyone has there own opinion about the cause of the past oppression of woman, it is currently still a popular argument today.