Upload
baerbel-stolz
View
35
Download
4
Embed Size (px)
Citation preview
Class and Labor Practices
In SFTV
Reading Quiz:
• Jaime Somers hurts her toe when jumping over a fence. She is reprimanded because she wasn’t “on the clock”: a) what was she doing and b) why was her injury an issue?
• Describe, in your own words, how techno-masculinity differs from an earlier hegemonic masculinity.
Cyborgs
Hybrid of machine and organism, a creature of social reality and fiction
Cyborgs and GenderMales
• Hyper masculine
• Militaristic
• Authoritative or worker drone
Females
• Queen or Goddess
• Destroyer or creator– Reproductive values
• Femininity in opposition to masculinized physical strength
Postindustrial Societies• Information as commodity: networked communication and
knowledge industries affect both material and non-material goods
• Partaking in analytic and symbolic tasks, and actual participation in exchange and communication of information – immaterial labor
• Managing and affirming existing gender and class hierarchies stabilizes the system– Knowledge and information (Content/commodity) ♂– Communication / affect of knowledge (taste, feeling, culture) ♀
Labor Practices and SFTV• Immaterial is primary form of labor in
the U.S. maintained hierarchy of best equipped worker being male and hetero-normative
• Immaterial Labor is both seen as working for capital and corporate structures and as offering opportunities to resist capitalist exploitation efforts
• Tech paranoia and instable economic system visualized in cyborg-themed SFTV
Pre-destined and well-equipped for cyborg task at hand
• In opposition to or paired w/hegemonic masculinity (physical, violent…)
• Skilled tech workers
• Ability to solve complex issues
• Connected to information and knowledge grid
• Anti-authoritative (or anti-establishment/ or anti-social)
♀ - Affective Laborer
• Reproductive technology
• End-user for complex technology reproductive labor
• Often at center of surveillance / physical exploitation asset to the system, maintaining position of capital
• Often under male control, maintenance tool
♂ - Techno-masculinity
Hierarchies between the two indicate the masculine being in a higher class bracket than the females!
Cyborgs don’t Need Sleep• Eradication of free and work time cyborgs are
always on call and hence work for the system• If cyborgs have multiple responsibilities ranking them
often causes additional dramagovernment and patriotism usually win out
• Ideal workers for the capital system• Batteries run out, models become outdated, systems
collapse expiration included in biodegradability of cyborgs