Engendering The Cyborg: The Movie Ex Machina (2015)

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Engendering the Cyborg
Ex Machina is a thought-provoking science fiction film that is apparently about robot consciousness and the potential of artificially intelligent life. This paper addresses the question: what are the gender dynamics at work in the movie Ex Machina (2015), and how do these issues reflect upon problems of sexism that face today’s technological society? The method of thinking through this question entails analysis of evidence and using Heather Watson’s essay to understand the issues of gender in the film. Thesis statement: this paper argues that Ex Machina (2015) portrays women as sex objects who are used and manipulated by men in the society. It also highlights that women are inferior to men. In so doing, the film supports and perpetuates gender stereotypes. This line of inquiry matters since it would shed light on how the issue of gender stereotyping and objectification of women is portrayed by technologists through artificial intelligence and robotics in the tech sector.
The theoretical concept that can be utilized in exploring what is occurring in Ex Machina is the sexual objectification concept. According to this concept, sexual objectification takes place when an individual is identified by his/her sexual function or sexual body parts. The person loses his/her identity and is exclusively identified by their body’s physical characteristics. Recognizing the individual in this way is aimed at bringing enjoyment to other people. In addition, this recognition is aimed at making the individual serve as a sexual object for the society (Barbara and Roberts 177). The sexual objectification concept, particularly the objectification of women, is a crucial idea in feminist theory. A lot of feminists consider sexual objectification as something that is awful, appalling, unacceptable, and contributing to the issue of gender inequality in today’s society (Szymanski, Moffitt and Carr 13).
Ava, who is a female robot in the film, is imbued with an attractive female form and a sophisticated brain. The film has a few major problems with regard to how it presents the gendered future: all robots in this movie appear as women whereas all humans are men. In this respect, Ex Machina clearly perpetuates further feminization of technology. The robot was created by Nathan, who is a rich and eccentric inventor. Nathan invited Caleb, his colleague, to examine Ava the robot (Garland). Nathan made Ava in his likeness as well as to his liking, with the body of a porn star and brainpower of algorithmic search. She has been custom-built in particular to match the internet porn preferences of Caleb. A disturbing realization is that at least for Nathan, the true test of Ava’s intelligence might, in fact, be her capability of arousing the affections of Caleb. In this way, Caleb and Nathan consider Ava as a sexual object. In addition, the body of Ava is very sexualized and transparent, which compel viewers, along with Caleb, to gaze inside of her, as though her body does not have any boundary. Caleb at one point wondered why there is a large concentration of sensors between Ava’s legs, which Nathan mentioned it was to enhance Ava&rs...