Janelle Monáe and the Cyborg Manifesto

When reading Balsamo’s article, I couldn’t help but think of the singer Janelle Monáe. From her first album Metropolis: Suite I (The Chase) to her most recent The Electric Lady, Monáe’s music has consisted of concept albums centered around an android named Cindi Mayweather in the year 2719. In this fictional futuristic world, Monáe has intentionally used androids as a metaphor for Othered identities such as women, members of the LGBTQ community, and people of color. It is particularly obvious in songs such as “Q.U.E.E.N.” with lyrics like “Am I a freak because I love watching Mary? / Hey sister am I good enough for your heaven? / …Or should I reprogram the program and get down? / …Even if it makes others uncomfortable / I will love who I am.”

 I wonder whether Monáe has read Haraway’s Cyborg Manifesto or not—I think aspects of it (as well as Sandoval’s oppositional consciousness) are interestingly illustrated by Monáe’s use of Cindi Mayweather and the “android community” as a unified stand-in for today’s marginalized communities. By using a fictional character with the identity of “android,” Monáe both critiques systems of oppression through an identity that is not necessarily formed by those systems, and empowers that identity through her more upbeat songs. Though she makes references to specific issues regarding women, people of color, and so on, they are framed as issues that the “android community” face within the larger context of her music. Although I think Monáe is more of a musician than an involved social activist, she does attempt to unify these “fractured identities” beyond her music: for one example, she collectively calls her fans “fANDROIDS.” She extends the imaginary into the “real world” in a manner of speaking, and though I suppose people would be “fANDROIDS” only in relation to Monáe, perhaps it can be seen as a “real” application of Haraway’s ideas.