Class and Labor Practices

In SFTV

Reading Quiz:

• Jaime Somers hurts her toe when jumping over a fence. She is reprimanded because she wasn’t “on the clock”: a) what was she doing and b) why was her injury an issue?

• Describe, in your own words, how techno-masculinity differs from an earlier hegemonic masculinity.

Cyborgs

Hybrid of machine and organism, a creature of social reality and fiction

Cyborgs and GenderMales

• Hyper masculine

• Militaristic

• Authoritative or worker drone

Females

• Queen or Goddess

• Destroyer or creator– Reproductive values

• Femininity in opposition to masculinized physical strength

Postindustrial Societies• Information as commodity: networked communication and

knowledge industries affect both material and non-material goods

• Partaking in analytic and symbolic tasks, and actual participation in exchange and communication of information – immaterial labor

• Managing and affirming existing gender and class hierarchies stabilizes the system– Knowledge and information (Content/commodity) ♂– Communication / affect of knowledge (taste, feeling, culture) ♀

Labor Practices and SFTV• Immaterial is primary form of labor in

the U.S. maintained hierarchy of best equipped worker being male and hetero-normative

• Immaterial Labor is both seen as working for capital and corporate structures and as offering opportunities to resist capitalist exploitation efforts

• Tech paranoia and instable economic system visualized in cyborg-themed SFTV

Pre-destined and well-equipped for cyborg task at hand

• In opposition to or paired w/hegemonic masculinity (physical, violent…)

• Skilled tech workers

• Ability to solve complex issues

• Connected to information and knowledge grid

• Anti-authoritative (or anti-establishment/ or anti-social)

♀ - Affective Laborer

• Reproductive technology

• End-user for complex technology reproductive labor

• Often at center of surveillance / physical exploitation asset to the system, maintaining position of capital

• Often under male control, maintenance tool

♂ - Techno-masculinity

Hierarchies between the two indicate the masculine being in a higher class bracket than the females!

Cyborgs don’t Need Sleep• Eradication of free and work time cyborgs are

always on call and hence work for the system• If cyborgs have multiple responsibilities ranking them

often causes additional dramagovernment and patriotism usually win out

• Ideal workers for the capital system• Batteries run out, models become outdated, systems

collapse expiration included in biodegradability of cyborgs