Blade Runner and Metropolis Essay

Hey Guys!

I love watching films and since I am reading English Literature at University I like to think about things critically. I really loved both 'Blade Runner' and 'Metropolis' so I thought I'd share this essay I've written on how technology is gendered in ‘Metropolis’ by Fritz Lang and ‘Blade Runner’ by Ridley Scott. This is just my opinion, I'd love to know what you think. Enjoy!

Metropolis uses the themes relationships amongst female sexuality and male vision and technology. The films underlying attraction is the relationship between technology and sexuality. This relationship seems to trigger a fascination with power over others as we encounter in the film. The creation of female identity which is formed by “patriarchal forces” such as Frederson, shows us how technology projects femininity to benefit men, as depicted by Donna Haraway in the film. Metropolis is not just gender stereotyping and technophobia; it is an exploration of the roles and expectations of men and women and portrays our ambivalence towards technology and femininity and opens our eyes to the oppression of women and their freedom. The underlying theme in Metropolis is clearly that women are seen as purely sexual objects.

The Weimar era brought about many films that explored human natures dark side. This is when ‘Metropolis’ was born, with themes typical of the Weimar culture - such as oppression. During this era women in the Weimer Republic were seen as sexual objects used to satisfy men. Women were negatively represented throughout the era in male creations of sexuality and they did not seem to liberate themselves of the social insecurities of the time. Because of the women’s appearance in this negative light on a constant basis during this time, they were unable to even reject their own stereotype. This is all clearly represented in ‘Metropolis’ by Fritz Lang in the male creation of female characters such as Maria. The technology in ‘Metropolis’ is centred around this culture of oppression and the ideas brought about during this period.

The changes in German culture post 1925 manifested itself in steps towards Christian fundamentalism lead in part by the rise of the Reich. Due to the split of the Germanic countries after World War I and the continued trade blockade sanctioned against them there was an underlying sense of powerlessness throughout German society and as a response within German culture. This sense of powerlessness led the German people to seek solace in a higher power and led to Christian fundamentalism slowly creeping into the hearts and minds of the German people before the Reich even came to power.

This shift in culture in Germany is directly responsible for the message portrayed in Metropolis and the treatment of women both in the day’s cinematography and society. There is also an undertone of “Deus ex machina" in the film, though Maria’s mechanical counterpart is subjugated and seen to be inferior because of her sex. In contrast to this, she is powerful beyond the means of mortal men due to her mechanical status. The idea that the machine is more powerful than any individual, regardless of gender and that Marias sex is unmade and she is raised to a level beyond the perceived limitations of her gender.

The whole movie was seen through the eyes of the male perspective which portrays the women as sexual objects and robs them of any personal identity. The robot in Metropolis is seen as a creation of technology, sexuality and femininity through the male imagination. The creation of the robot was to reflect the fear that men have of women and technology. Women and machines raise fear for the men because they threaten the dominance and control that men have.

The female robot brought about fear by threatening the control and power of men because of the idea that technology could become so large and advanced that it would eventually be out of mans control and destroy humanity. Maria was seen to pose a threat to Frederson because of the emotions she shows. The scene in metropolis where Rotwang leads Frederson down to the catacombs to watch Maria preach about peace is a direct depiction of the male fear of femininity. In this context he needed to control women because of insecurities about his own dominance and power over women. The technological world was been seen as being dominated by men while women essentially stood on the outside looking in. For example, Rotwang creates a mechanical vamp to satisfy his own sexual desires and be able to control and dominate her every move. He also reveals her at a strip club for the upper classes to enjoy. Lang invents his females as technological objects that come to life at the hands and visions of their male masters. Peter Ruppert says the robot “is replicated not born” thus it should not behave how a naturally born woman would behave. The robot is simply a machine created with no feelings, emotions or morals; this is a deadly combination when Maria is given biological blueprints as she is just a machine with no heart.

This makes the gender of the technology male as the women are created to satisfy men and have no power over themselves. This is clearly seen when the robot, disguised as Maria, is put on the stake to burn, her clothes eventually burn away to display her feminine body. Though this should be a horrendous encounter, every man present cannot part their eyes from her as she burns purely because they see her as nothing but a physical entity. Because Metropolis is a silent film, the body takes on a stronger more powerful meaning.

All of the women are seen as sexual objects, while the robot is mans technological fantasy creation. An issue concerning gender that the film deals with is the paranoid male and the ideal woman that is considered to be a dangerous threat to men in the film. The scene where the robot, “false Maria” does her erotic dance for the men of Metropolis demonstrates how dangerous a woman’s sexuality is seen to be to any man in Metropolis, especially a paranoid man. Introducing the robot brings in many intersections of gender and technology as well as science. Initially, the image of sexual Maria degrades ‘real’ Maria, as well as accentuating her decency; she is put in contrast with her antipode, from an innocent virgin to becoming a whore. The relationship between religious Maria, moral Maria and the robot Maria can be interpreted to show the danger of idolizing technology, as well as humanising it by giving it gender and sexualising it. 

In Blade Runner, gender and technology are an important part of the film. Blade Runner is set in the future, therefore we expect that women’s rights should have increased somewhat. However, the women are characterized as weak secondary characters, whereas the men are all portrayed as strong, powerful characters in the film.

All of the lead characters in Blade Runner are dominated by men. Much like “Metropolis”, the technology in Blade Runner is most certainly masculine. All of the technology is used to enhance the men’s lives. All of the soldiers and blade runners are male and they are manufactured to be strong, fast and intelligent. The women are created solely for the men’s pleasure visually and sexually.  The female replicants Rachael and Pris are both capable women however they are followers rather than leaders and are resigned to the controlling men. Zhora dances purely to entertain men and Roy uses Pris to seduce Sebastian. Men such as Roy, Dr. Tyrell, the blade runners and police officers are all seen to be authoritative figures. Donna Haraway defines the cyborg as “a hybrid of machine and organism” in “A Manifesto for Cyborgs”. As the replicants have no mechanical parts as such, Haraway says that trying to define “the cyborg” is like attempting to define “the woman”, this is to say that it would be almost impossible to compose such a definition.

David Thomson said that he hoped to see Deckard “melt silicon hearts”, this suggests that the replicant women were somewhat objectified as attractive objects for the men to enjoy. In an interview, Ridley Scott said “I guess that if Tyrell went to the trouble of making the perfect replicants, then he’d have taken into account their sexual capabilities”, he suggests that Pris may have been employed in the military camps specifically for sexual purposes.

Is this taking advantage of the advancements of technology to objectify women to use them purely for sexual purposes? Scott also states that there is no point in creating female replicants if “you want them to be ugly”. This suggests that Scott’s aim was to create the female replicants to be looked at and admired and this should perhaps lead to pleasure, this power allows the creator of the replicants, to objectify women through technology. Though Zhora is a skilled detective, she is forced to become a sex worker. She is being used for her body rather than her intelligence just because she has no control over what she must do. Likewise, Pris exists to entertain and primarily to sexually satisfy others, she is called a basic pleasure model.  Deckard shows violence towards Rachael when he finds her desirable. All of these women are put in awkward situations and are very much oppressed by the men in the film. This is because they have no real control over themselves as they are manmade. Rachael is one of Tyrell's new Nexus 6 replicants - this means she develops memories which lead to instructions for Deckard to terminate her. Some people believe that Deckard is himself a retired Blade Runner and that his purpose in life is to find and kill the genetically engineered replicants in the film. However, Deckard has now fallen for Rachael and is not willing to kill her. Though she has been created and is a replicant and not a human, Deckard realises that the replicants that he has been retiring were manufactured with memories and that they have developed human emotions and so he falls in love with her. This could be to suggest that he has fallen for a technological replicant, not a real woman. In the love scene between Rachael and Deckard it is hard to see it as loving or caring of Deckard, as he takes advantage of her unstable memory and takes possession of her body. 

Anne Balsamo says “picking up the script Deckard’s visual and sexual desire, Rachael symbolically reasserts the social and political position of woman as object of man’s consumption”. This shows us how these women are nothing more than manufactured replicants that are being used. Though the technology is masculine and is built to satisfy and enhance the men's lives, technology has worked against Deckard in this instance, the male dominated world in which the film is set leaves him with two options, kill or be killed. He is forced to begin a tragic game where man and machine go to horrendous extremes to achieve the same thing - Life. All of this leans towards male oriented technology which transcends the physical mechanics involved and becomes something more than human, another example of the machine symbolising a higher power. This manifests as an almost godlike status being granted to the mechanical men. The associated power that is given to them ultimately works against everyone. The ill treatment and objectification of women could be to extract sympathy from the audience, the replicants represent not only the battle of the sexes in the film and the misuse of women but it challenges our idea of what is human and what is not. It also makes us think about what is real and what is not real, though the replicates are supposedly manmade, we feel sympathetic for them when they are mistreated. If they were just physical objects or had no feelings we surely would not feel this way. This is the danger of humanising technology and giving it a gender.  

One of the main themes in Blade Runner is Christianity. The tenets of fundamentalist Christianity do not afford women the same rights as men. This is observable through the handling of femininity both through how technology is gendered and the treatment of the females in the film.

In both Metropolis and Blade Runner, the gender bias of technology is used to empower men and enhance their lives. The gender bias of technology in both fictional constructs is predominately used to empower males and accentuate masculinity. This status granted by men by the new technological prowess means that they are capable of objectifying women. The female technology in both Blade Runner and Metropolis is compliant to what appeals to the men. The men are powerful and controlling as they are able to use technology to their advantage to create their ideal women, with whom they can do as they please.

You can draw a comparison between both films treatment of womanliness in context to Christianity. The Christian ideology is ubiquitous to the message conveyed by both films. The extension of this is the bias in the way that technology is gendered. In both films, technology is used to help create Christian idealised versions of both males and females. The gender stereotypes that are held within the Christian belief system are all seen to be enhanced by technology. In both films the purpose of the technology is split between men and women to separate them into the traditional gender roles from a Christian ideological perspective.

 The men seem to find comfort and solace in the knowledge that they can objectify the women in both films to ensure that they are seen to be the governing gender by using technology. They also use this technological power to fulfil their sexual needs in both films. In Metropolis, themes such as relationships within female sexuality, the male vision and technology combine to create a massive threat to men. Similarly, in Blade Runner, women though capable are debilitated by technology and are also used solely for the pleasure of men.

The men are the technological leaders and in both cases women are their creations to be admired, controlled and dominated by the paranoid male leaders.  The male orientated technology goes beyond the simple mechanics involved to empower the men and further enhance their dominance.

               

Bibliography:

Robin W. Lovin, Reinhold Niebuhr, (Abingdon: Abingdon Press, 2007) pp. 47-58

Christian Emden, David R. Midley, German Literature, History and the Nation: Papers from the Conference ‘The Fragile tradition. (Cambridge: Peter Lang, 2004)  p.178

Anne Balsamo. “Reading Cyborgs Writing Feminism.” The Gendered Cyborg: A Reader. Eds. Kirkup. G, James. L, Woodward. K and Havenden. F. (New York: Routlege, 2000)

 Blade Runner, dir. by Ridley Scott (Warner Bros. 1982)

Metropolis, dir, by Fritz Lang (Universum Film AG. 1927)

Rutsky, R.L. “The Mediation of Technology and Gender: Metropolis, Nazism, Modernism.” New German Critique: an Interdisciplinary Journal of German Studies. (Autumn, 1991)

Ruppert, Peter. “Technology and the Constructions of Gender in Fritz Lang’s Metropolis.” (2000) <http://www.genders.org/g32/g32_ruppert.html> [Accessed 18 December 2012]

Andreas Huyssen. “The Vamp and the Machine: Technology and Sexuality in Fritz Lang’s Metropolis.” New German Critique: and Interdisciplinary Journal of German Studies. (1982)

Janet Lungstrum. “Metropolis and the Technosexual Woman of German Moderninity.” Women in the Metropolis: Gender and Moderninity in Weimar Culture. (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1997)

Thomson, David. “Sex in Science Fiction Films: Romance or Enginnering?”. (New York: BFI Publishing, 1984)

Harraway, Donna. “A Cyborg Manifesto: Science, Technology, and Socialist – Feminism in the Late Twentieth Century.” (New York: Routledge, 1991)

Will Brooker. “Reel Toads and Imaginary Cites: Philip K. Dick, Blade Runner and the Contemporary Science Fiction Movie. (London: Wallflower Press. 2005)