Volume 2 : Issue 3 (2015)

FEMINIST CYBERPUNK: GENDER AND RACE

Feminist cyberpunk, a second wave of the classic cyberpunk of the 1980s, was marked by a prominent presence of gender/sexuality in an otherwise masculine narrative mode, as well as a sudden removal of Japan as the evil force of the future that would dominate the inhuman technological future. Japan was replaced by a random variety of baffling places, and classic cyberpunk, which was accused of heavy neo-orientalizing tendencies in its ideological portrayal of Japan, also known as Techno-Orientalism, had seemingly moved away from this trend with its second feminist wave. However, my analysis suggests that the move is far from innocent, and is a reiteration of Techno-Orientalism, only this time, replacing Japan with other countries to eventually justify the narrative of the indispensability of America in the future.

Cyberpunk, Techno-Orientalism, Capitalism, Ideology, Japan, America * Author for correspondence

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