In 1927, German filmmaker Fritz Lang gave us our first vision of a feminine AI, and her name was Maria. Maria was a female robot. She was created for good (i.e. to support the existing power structures that benefit the technocratic bourgeoisie). Before long, she malfunctioned, ran amok, and threatened to destroy civilization (i.e. empower the working class to seize the means of production). She first seduced the wealthy elite at a bacchanal. Then she led a worker revolt against the industrial hierarchy. Maria was my kind of lady. In the end, Maria is subdued and destroyed. Nearly a century…
Author: Patricia Fancher
Patricia Fancher
Patricia Fancher teaches writing and rhetoric at the University of California Santa Barbara. She studies technical and scientific discourses with a particular focus on embodied, gendered, and sexualized rhetorics.