I came across a few images that I think everyone might enjoy looking at. I find it extremely interesting that women are "putting on" cyborg as a fashionable accessory. Prosthetics are being refashioned as trendy, wearable technology- and in these cases, they are functioning as enhancements to the female body...
It may sound silly, but it's quite possible that cyborg could emerge as a more popularized fashion trend. In fact, it has already made a crossover into the world of steampunk.
http://www.fastcodesign.com/1662265/almost-genius-womens-prosthetic-limbs-as-fashion-accessories
- Hannah Guthman
I find this topic rather fascinating because this reminds me of prosthetic limbs for people with disabilities. There has been a long standing stigma associated with disability. It makes able bodied people very uncomfortable to encounter and interact with people who have physical disabilities because disability is seen as inorganic. So when I see these prosthetic inspired devices used as fashion accessories, I am not sure whether to condone it or criticize it. What I personally find disturbing about this is that able bodied people will have the chance to play "disabled" by using these accessories and devices. However, do disabled bodied people have the same privilege of playing able bodied for a day using similar extensions? For example, if I (an able bodied being) wanted to experience what it was like to have a prosthetic leg, I can easily put this accessory on and experience being a "cyborg" for a moment and then take it off and resume life as a "normal" human with a natural leg. However, if I didn't have a right leg and wanted to see what it was like to be able bodied and reattach my missing limb, would I be able to? Even if I could, I would still be understood as a cyborg because nothing about the right leg would be seen as legitimate. Regardless of whether or not the intention of this design was to create a prosthetic limb for people who already have a functioning leg or not, it is important to question who can and cannot access these devices and what constitutes legitimacy when engaging with the cyborg.
ReplyDeleteI love this and find it so interesting! I find it important to remember though, that becoming a cyborg is not always as obvious as putting on a prosthetic leg. As we mentioned in class putting on contact lenses or glasses, technologies that we often forget ARE technologies, also make us cyborgs. There are colored contacts and "fashionable" glasses that help us to look past the "disability". The way we have accessorized the technologies that make us cyborgs has normalized the disability and even made us look past it. This idea of normalizing disabilities could be taken offensively or embraced by society--in terms of glasses or contacts becoming "fashion statements" I think it's far different from allowing a prosthetic leg to become a fashion statement. I personally think making prosthetics fashionable is a great step toward society overlooking the disability, not in the sense where they become insensitive to it, but so seeing someone with prosthetic limbs doesn't become so unusual that the person would receive strange looks while going about daily life.
ReplyDeleteI think what Philip is saying about disabled bodies using prosthetics is interesting. I also find it interesting that many people argue that using these prosthetics is unfair for able-bodied humans because these prosthetics might contain technologies that make the humans faster or do different activities better than able-bodied humans can. The idea that a people can argue against a disability and the aid for the disability is so ridiculous. I just wanted to attach this onto Philip's comment :)
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