A Cyborg Manifesto

Haraway begins this section by building on ideas she introduced in the previous one. She reiterates that the division between the public and private spheres is dissolving. Haraway doubts whether this was ever even an accurate way of dividing society. Instead, she argues that a “network ideological image” (45) is a better way of framing society. In a network, all boundaries are permeable.

Haraway makes sure to note that even “boundaries in the personal body” (45) apply. This ties back to the idea in the essay’s previous section that ultrasounds are a way of permeating physical boundaries. Haraway acknowledges that this technology has the potential to infringe on privacy, but here she accepts the permeability of the physical body as a necessary reality of modern society. Of course, these two opinions are not mutually exclusive. Permeable boundaries are a feature that is paramount to cyborg bodies.

Haraway calls her network-based ideology an “integrated circuit,” which is another word for a microchip. She uses a microchip as a metaphor for a society made up of networks. Microchips are made up of circuits composed of minuscule electronic components embedded into a tiny piece of silicon (hence Silicon Valley, which Haraway often references). Microchips are used in virtually all types of advanced electronics—computers, video games, cell phones, etc. The proliferation of the microchip in the 1980s is one of the main catalysts for the new technology and network-based society that this essay describes. It also serves as an analogy to Haraway’s conception of the new society.

The essay lays out seven different idealized “social locations” within the integrated unit. They are “Home, Market, Paid Workplace, State, School, Clinic-Hospital, and Church” (46). The “home” features patriarchal households and high levels of domestic violence and homelessness. Within the “market,” the technology industry produces more and more in an effort to avoid mass unemployment. The “paid workplace” has the same race and gender divides as it has had for a while, but women and Black people are beginning to have better-paying jobs. The “state” includes the degradation of a welfare state, and power is divided according to the amount of information people have access to. 

“School” incorporates educational inequality based on race and gender, and specifically a lack of scientific literacy among women and Black people, leading to greater control in the hands of technological aristocrats and the military. The “clinic-hospital” domain sees more incorporation of machines into the human body, as well as an increasing relevance of reproductive rights in politics. Finally, the “church” is a hub of military resistance and also plays a role in the feminist fight for power, especially for reproductive rights. The picture Haraway paints of society makes it clear that feminism must be restructured to fit a new society that is heavily influenced by science and technology. 

Though emerging technologies are advancements, Haraway suggests that they improve the lives of only the privileged elite. They also change how institutions and labor function, so the roles people play within these domains also change. Haraway admits that her vision of society is bleak and depressing, but she is adamant that, “There are grounds for hope in the emerging bases for new kinds of unity across race, gender, and class” (51). She doesn’t yet know exactly how, but she believes that the rapid changes in society and culture could contribute to an overall decrease in human struggle. 

Returning to her main thesis, Haraway reiterates her belief in accepting the “taboo fusions” of “animals and machines,” which are “made inevitable by the social relations of science and technology” (52). The beginning of A Cyborg Manifesto is devoted to explaining and defining all the meanings of a “cyborg,” which Haraway readily admits is a naturally uncomfortable concept. “Taboo fusions” are at the heart of all the various manifestations of what a cyborg embodies, and these fusions happen when humans and machines blend together.

The later sections, like “Women in the Integrated Unit,” outline the cultural impact of technology on society, which is another blending of humans and machines and thus fits into Haraway’s definition of “cyborg,” even though it has nothing to do with the science fiction creatures of media and imagination. Still, the society Haraway illustrates does include taboo, uncomfortable imagery. The idea of the ultrasound as a surveillance tool used to exert control over women’s bodies is almost as uncomfortable as the earlier example Haraway provides of the human baby who had the heart of a baboon. The former is an example of a cyborg society, while the latter is a kind of true cyborg—a human with non-human body parts. The analogy of these two completely different applications of the term “cyborg” invites readers to confront how truly bizarre and unnatural certain aspects of technology-infused culture are. 

At the end of this section, Haraway briefly alludes to the ideas the essay starts with to remind her readers of one of her main overarching ideas: Acknowledging the confusing and unsettling truths of reality is a necessary step to making positive change.