With Haraway’s “A Cyborg Manifesto”, she explored a world where there is a utopian idea that had no need for the labels that gender brought. It dreamed of a concept where cyborgs have no sexual development and don’t need to be organic have the specific identities that people face in real life. I think that the idea is really cool, the thought of no need for certain pressures for how to live and love people, and how to be a person based on what people thought of your own gender. In Janelle Monae’s album “Dirty Computer”, there is a very similar idea when it comes to the conflict. In “Dirty Computer” the idea of being a woman, being queer, being a minority, was seen as something bad, or “dirty”. The main character that was shown throughout the album that was supposed to be “cleaned” of all of those thoughts and ideas. I think that it is very similar to how “A Cyborg Manifesto” was about, but in the opposite sense.
While “A Cyborg Manifesto” has the idea of a perfect place that doesn’t have complex ideas on what it means to be a person, “Dirty Computer” punishes people for challenging those beliefs. It is seen as something bad to a lot of people in the real world just to be different, and Haraway thought to challenge those beliefs and the concept of what identity means. I think that Monae also has a similar thought, dreaming of a world where these things do not matter, and people are simply free to be who they are. In “So Afraid”, Monae sings about how she feels scared to even admit the feelings she has. Considering that it is fine for her to stay in her shell and not be proud of who she is. But these fears are presented as a normal thing. It is okay to be scared to challenge peoples beliefs, but as seen in “A Cyborg Manifesto”, it is not necessarily a bad thing. It can actually make everyone feel more comfortable, and not weighed down by certain labels.
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