{"id":10144,"date":"2006-08-24T13:51:37","date_gmt":"2006-08-24T20:51:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/2006\/08\/24\/unleash-the-fembots.html"},"modified":"2006-08-24T13:51:37","modified_gmt":"2006-08-24T20:51:37","slug":"unleash_the_fem","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2006\/08\/24\/unleash_the_fem.html","title":{"rendered":"Unleash the Fembots!"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Robot (or robot-like) women.  <a href=\"http:\/\/www.popsci.com\/popsci\/technology\/a866e978658fc010vgnvcm1000004eecbccdrcrd.html\" target=\"_blank\">Why are they so popular in fiction?<\/a><\/p>\n<p><font class=\"medium\" color=\"#333333\"> <\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p><font class=\"medium\" color=\"#333333\">Fembots were a pop-culture staple long before Austin Powers battled them\u2014witness the popularity of <i>The Bionic Woman<\/i>, <i>The Stepford Wives<\/i> and <i>Blade Runner<\/i>. But what is it about curvaceous cyborgs that stirs the imagination? To some, fembots represent the perfect male fantasy: They\u2019re sexy and submissive and have more techie features than the Xbox 360. But they also have a dangerous side that can reduce walls to rubble and make an army retreat. Perhaps the<br \/>\nfembot\u2019s allure resides in her ability to walk the line between total obedience and unfathomable power.<\/font><\/p>\n<p><font class=\"medium\" color=\"#333333\">Feminist science-fiction writer Amy Thomson, author of robot-comes-of-age novel <i>Virtual Girl<\/i>, suggests that the fembot myth is attractive to men because it deals with \u201ca woman you create and control.\u201d But tech journalist Daniel Wilson, author of <i>How to Survive a Robot Uprising<\/i>, argues that fictional fembots have hardly been portrayed as controllable\u2014in fact, he claims, they\u2019re often presented as the most dangerous robots of all, because feelings of attraction<br \/>\nto them could leave their victims vulnerable to attack. \u201cA sexy robot that\u2019s aggressive could be a wolf in rubberized skin,\u201d he says. <\/font><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><\/font><\/p>\n<p><font color=\"#333333\">There&#8217;s a gallery of &#8220;<a href=\"http:\/\/www.popsci.com\/popsci\/technology\/4362e978658fc010vgnvcm1000004eecbccdrcrd.html\" target=\"_blank\">favorites<\/a>&#8221; &#8212; from <em>Weird Science, Metropolis, Blade Runner, S1m0ne, The Stepford Wives, Battlestar Galactica, The Bionic Woman*, A.I., <\/em>and <em>Austin Powers<\/em>, <\/font><\/p>\n<p><font color=\"#333333\"><small><\/p>\n<p><font color=\"#333333\">*The <em>BW<\/em> reference here is evidently not to Jaime Sommers, a cyborg, but to the full-blown fembot opponents she repeatedly fought.<\/font><\/p>\n<p><\/small><\/font><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Robot (or robot-like) women. Why are they so popular in fiction? Fembots were a pop-culture staple long before Austin Powers battled them\u2014witness the popularity of The Bionic Woman, The Stepford&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[20,41,40],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10144","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-hi-tech","category-media-movies","category-media-tv"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":27768,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2012\/05\/06\/gir.html","url_meta":{"origin":10144,"position":0},"title":"GIR!","author":"***Dave","date":"Sun 6-May-12 10:05am","format":false,"excerpt":"A nice look back at the zaniness of \"Invader Zim\" and Zim's robot, GIR. Zim was an idiosyncratic taste, but I liked it, darkness and all. Embedded Link Why Invader Zim's GIR should be your favorite robot sidekick Science fiction has portrayed its fair share of glitchy and bumbling robots\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;~PlusPosts&quot;","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":9995,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2006\/09\/29\/mmmmm_bacon.html","url_meta":{"origin":10144,"position":1},"title":"&#8220;MMMMM  &#8230; BACON &#8230;.&#8221;","author":"***Dave","date":"Fri 29-Sep-06 9:57am","format":false,"excerpt":"We're all doomed, doomed, I tell you. Robots think we taste like bacon. Researchers at NEC System Technologies and Mie University have designed a robot that can taste \u2014 an...","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Food &amp; Drink&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Food &amp; Drink","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/food-drink"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/images\/t2-endo.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":15977,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2009\/10\/11\/two-fisted-existential-robot-tales.html","url_meta":{"origin":10144,"position":2},"title":"Two-Fisted Existential Robot Tales!","author":"***Dave","date":"Sun 11-Oct-09 1:59pm","format":false,"excerpt":"We played \"Happy Birthday, Robot!\" this morning. The results were ... a tug of war between hope and horror, aspiration and anxiety ... Happy Birthday, Robot! Robot has a red, beeping antenna, and large Frankenstein shoes with brass knuckles. He walked alone, but not lonely. He was blue and wore\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Gaming&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Gaming","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/gaming"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/10\/happybirthdayroobot.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":5764,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2004\/07\/21\/robot_robot.html","url_meta":{"origin":10144,"position":3},"title":"Robot-robot","author":"***Dave","date":"Wed 21-Jul-04 9:01am","format":false,"excerpt":"Is it my imagination, or is there a similarity between the famous Queen \"News of the World\" album cover robot (itself derived from a famous sf pulp magazine cover) and...","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Media &amp; Culture&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Media &amp; Culture","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/media"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":32797,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2013\/03\/09\/robot-combat-league-neither-rocksem-nor-socksem.html","url_meta":{"origin":10144,"position":4},"title":"&quot;Robot Combat League&quot; neither rocks&#39;em nor socks&#39;em","author":"***Dave","date":"Sat 9-Mar-13 2:09pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Yeah, it sounded pretty cool. But RCL on Syfy is ... 85% hype, 15% substance.The robots are not actually robots, but anthropomorphic waldos -- connected to the sides of the ring for power and hydraulics, and operated by a team of two, one manning the legs\/bar to move the robot\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;~PlusPosts&quot;","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":6294,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2004\/09\/24\/giant_robot_att.html","url_meta":{"origin":10144,"position":5},"title":"&#8220;Giant Robot!  Attack the Megalon!&#8221;","author":"***Dave","date":"Fri 24-Sep-04 4:55pm","format":false,"excerpt":"For Doyce's \"Grimm Therapy\" game, my kid, Jason, has a toy robot (Super-Mega-Bot-Z!) who's also his demon. While the voice I have in mind for the robot is straight from...","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Gaming&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Gaming","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/gaming"},"img":{"alt_text":"robo-hands.jpg","src":"\/blog\/images\/robo-hands.jpg","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10144","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10144"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10144\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10144"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10144"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10144"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}