“Computer Cowboys” and “Ass-kicking Techno-babes” Challenging Cyberpunk’s Conventional Representations of Gender and Sexuality in the Futuristic Digital World of Moxyland

Abstract

This article analyses the effects created by Lauren Beukes through her use of the cyberpunk genre in her first novel, Moxyland (2008). Because of its challenge to conventional ideas of embodiment and identity formation, together with its counter-cultural punk ethos, cyberpunk would seem to offer the prospect of transgressive versions of gender and sexuality. However, various critics note that instead of realising this potential, cyberpunk endorses heterosexual masculinity in its narratives, while repressing or marginalising feminine and homosexual relations. In Moxyland, Beukes actively engages with the conventions of cyberpunk in order to subvert such reactionary reiterations and the conventionally gendered power structures that underpin them. Through techniques such as exaggeration, splitting and exploring contrasted forms of masculinity she criticises the cyberpunk genre’s conventional treatment of gender, as well as the patriarchal power relations it promotes. Beukes also refutes cyberpunk’s tendency to restrict the transgressive potential of its empowered female characters by portraying them in terms of sexualised femininity. She challenges essentialist notions of gender as she depicts women characters in active relation to technology. Her version of the female cyborg conveys a potentially transgressive blending of technology and biology, dramatised outside the conventional lens of the masculine gaze. 

 Opsomming

 Hierdie artikel ontleed die effekte wat Lauren Beukes bewerkstellig deur haar gebruik van die kuberpunkgenre in haar eerste roman, Moxyland (2008). Omdat dit konvensionele idees van verpersoonliking en identiteitsvorming in twyfel trek, en ook vanweë die teenkulturele punk-etos, sou ʼn mens dink dat kuberpunk die moontlikheid van oorskrydende voorstellings van geslag en seksualiteit bied. Verskeie kritici wys egter daarop dat pleks daarvan om hierdie potensiaal te verwesenlik, kuberpunk heteroseksuele manlikheid in sy verhale steun terwyl die vroulike en homoseksuele verhoudings onderdruk of gemarginaliseer word. In Moxyland werk Beukes aktief met die konvensies van kuberpunk ten einde sodanige reaksionêre herhalings en die konvensionele geslagsgebonde magstrukture wat dit onderlê, omver te werp. Deur tegnieke soos oordrywing, onderverdeling en verkenning van teenstellende vorme van manlikheid, kritiseer sy die kuberpunk-genre se konvensionele hantering van geslag, sowel as die patriargale magsverhoudings wat dit bevorder. Beukes weerlê ook kuber-punk se geneigdheid om die oorskrydende potensiaal van sy bemagtigde vroulike karakters te beperk deur hulle uit te beeld vanuit die oogpunt van geseksualiseerde vroulikheid. Sy betwis essensialistiese denkbeelde van geslag, aangesien sy vroue-karakters uitbeeld in aktiewe verwantskap tot tegnologie. Haar weergawe van die vroulike kuborg dra ʼn potensieel oorskrydende vermenging van tegnologie en biologie oor – gedramatiseer buite die konvensionele lens van die starende manlike blik.