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wodneswynn:
avita-creator:
wodneswynn:
wodneswynn:
wodneswynn:
wodneswynn:
The way most people try to do cyberpunk is….tedious.
The moral and philosophical implications of body modification are (1) not interesting and (2) not worth debating anyway. The subgenre’s been hijacked by boring weird dudes who are in awe of their own intellect and want to play “What if phone but too much??” with their transphobia and ableism.
I talked before about how I’m no fan of Gibson, but I will give him this much, that Gibson at least knew what the important questions were and knew how to explore them. For the most part, the people who bit off of Neuromancer ignored all the good bits.
Those mooks behind the Cyberpunk 2077 game had this boiling hot take:
And there is, as they say, a lot to unpack here.
For one thing that’s not fucking what Ghost In The Shell is about. It is not about that At All. Y'all making crap up.
GitS: Imperialism’s bad. Cultural chauvinism is bad. The police state is bad. The way our lives and selves become commodities is bad.
You absolute dorks: Wow, cool cyborg!
And as long as I’m on a roll, let’s bring in some Real Shit™.
I’m a queer woman. I modify my body in various ways because if I don’t I’ll never feel comfortable existing in it. I’m disabled; I live in constant excruciating pain, there are times I can’t get around without a mobility aid, and oh boy wouldn’t it be nice if there were something I could change about my body to make the pain go away, I’d be all over that like gravy on biscuits.
So that line, “She’s not clean,” well, that echoes around in my brain like a rifle’s crack. That’s what I see in the eyes of all the people who stop and stare at me when I go to the grocery store. That’s what’ll probably be on the lips of the person who eventually murders me. “She’s not clean.”
And I don’t even have any cool robot parts yet.
Holy… Had never considered cybernetic augmentation being analogous to transitioning. It makes the ‘not clean’ comment so much more insidious. This fixation by the Cyberpunk 2077 creators on bodily purity is an absolute “different is bad” perspective, and that’s just scary.
Oh no I was being completely literal, not metaphorical.
Medical transition isn’t analogous to augmentation, it *is* augmentation.
This is one thing I really liked about the BBC sci-fi drama Years and Years, being transhuman is directly compared to being trans and is at no point shown to be wrong or unhealthy- we see a transhuman character get happier and happier as she gets further augments, and although they are depicted as dangerous, it’s made clear that’s because of the way society gatekeeps these procedures rather than any concept that they are inherently bad.
Also there’s a trans character who just quietly transitions in the background and barely anyone comments on it.
wodneswynn:
avita-creator:
wodneswynn:
wodneswynn:
wodneswynn:
wodneswynn:
The way most people try to do cyberpunk is….tedious.
The moral and philosophical implications of body modification are (1) not interesting and (2) not worth debating anyway. The subgenre’s been hijacked by boring weird dudes who are in awe of their own intellect and want to play “What if phone but too much??” with their transphobia and ableism.
I talked before about how I’m no fan of Gibson, but I will give him this much, that Gibson at least knew what the important questions were and knew how to explore them. For the most part, the people who bit off of Neuromancer ignored all the good bits.
Those mooks behind the Cyberpunk 2077 game had this boiling hot take:
And there is, as they say, a lot to unpack here.
For one thing that’s not fucking what Ghost In The Shell is about. It is not about that At All. Y'all making crap up.
GitS: Imperialism’s bad. Cultural chauvinism is bad. The police state is bad. The way our lives and selves become commodities is bad.
You absolute dorks: Wow, cool cyborg!
And as long as I’m on a roll, let’s bring in some Real Shit™.
I’m a queer woman. I modify my body in various ways because if I don’t I’ll never feel comfortable existing in it. I’m disabled; I live in constant excruciating pain, there are times I can’t get around without a mobility aid, and oh boy wouldn’t it be nice if there were something I could change about my body to make the pain go away, I’d be all over that like gravy on biscuits.
So that line, “She’s not clean,” well, that echoes around in my brain like a rifle’s crack. That’s what I see in the eyes of all the people who stop and stare at me when I go to the grocery store. That’s what’ll probably be on the lips of the person who eventually murders me. “She’s not clean.”
And I don’t even have any cool robot parts yet.
Holy… Had never considered cybernetic augmentation being analogous to transitioning. It makes the ‘not clean’ comment so much more insidious. This fixation by the Cyberpunk 2077 creators on bodily purity is an absolute “different is bad” perspective, and that’s just scary.
Oh no I was being completely literal, not metaphorical.
Medical transition isn’t analogous to augmentation, it *is* augmentation.
This is one thing I really liked about the BBC sci-fi drama Years and Years, being transhuman is directly compared to being trans and is at no point shown to be wrong or unhealthy- we see a transhuman character get happier and happier as she gets further augments, and although they are depicted as dangerous, it’s made clear that’s because of the way society gatekeeps these procedures rather than any concept that they are inherently bad.
Also there’s a trans character who just quietly transitions in the background and barely anyone comments on it.