In Haraway’s “Cyborg Manifesto”, many of the concepts that are major issues and factors today are not as important and even transcended. When thinking about gender and biology, the idea of a cyborg goes past those forms and surpasses gender as a whole. Things like race and species become blurred and identity becomes a fluid concept. In that way, Haraway uses Cyborgization as a way to overlook these categories and to focus on technology and the changes that the world would experience rather than staying conformed to gender, sexuality, and etc.
In Monae’s album “Dirty Computer”, Monae also explores what Haraway does in her manifesto but in the way that those who do not conform to the norm are abnormal such as if a device was malfunctioning and needs to be corrected. Many of the songs on her album challenge the norms that we are stuck in due to things such as sexuality, gender expression and more not fitting within those context. It also focuses on identity and how complex one is rather than just being there biological gender and race but also the implications that that has within the system.
Overall, both works share a similar passion in the way that they both want to defy the standards set within the context that we are held in today. As a cyborg, things like gender and race are not the focus and there’s more than just what categories one fits in. Then also that being different that what is normal to people is not a crime and that expressing oneself and being different is okay rather than being seen as in the wrong. In both works, both Haraway and Monae envision a world where people can transcend being held back and to truly be free to be without borders and boundaries.
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