Cyborg Manifesto
I couldn't write my blog yesterday because I don't have internet at my house and the campus was closed because of the power outage. I do however feel as though I would have been rambling incoherantly about the article if I had written anything yesterday, so I'm almost glad to be writing it today.
I thing that the cyborg metaphor is important because cyborgs are not victims. They do not lament the past or "recognize the post-oedipal apocalypse." They have the ability to accept change and adapt their coding to live with it.
I wondered this weekend how the metaphor of the cyborg can be translated into a real-life scenario. On Saturday I was at my job, cashiering at Top Foods and I was told by a customer that I was "just a cute little thing" and I felt quite uncomfortable. He then preceeded to stare me down and got angry when I would not meet his eye contact. This has happened to me and other cashiers before and I never know what to do when it happens. I asked my employer if they could give training on what to do when a customer is sexually harassing us or making us feel uncomfortable and they said that they have a video to watch but they'll see what they can do about making a formal training session. I wondered as I was reading how I would have handled this situation as a cyborg. Wouldn't a cyborg just accept this dillema and move on emotionlessly? I doubt it. I think that one of Harroway's main points was that as cyborgs we can change our code to help us. I simply hadn't been programmed with the code to handle sexual harrasment from customers so I asked someone to program it into me. I am a very good little cyborg. After the training sessions my code will be up-to-date and I will be able to handle these situations with ease.