A New Era of Fetishism: Winterson’s Dys/Utopian Sexbots

Abstract

The issues concerning the female body and sexuality have long been a priority for feminist scholars and critics. In the last three decades, this field of study has been greatly influenced by current technological implementations, especially regarding the creation and modification of bodies. Although these modifications seem promising from the perspectives of tech-optimists, feminists object to bodily modifications by underlining the fact that technology is designed and developed following the desires of heterosexual masculinity, thereby preserving the dehumanization of women and reinforcing the objectification of their bodies. The growing sextech industry and the recent trend of all-equipped sexbots serving in sexbots brothels demonstrate the adverse consequences of the d/evolution of heteronormative technology. Thus, considering the above discussions within the light of Jeannette Winterson’s Frankissstein: A Love Story (2019) and basing the argument on cyberfeminist critiques of Donna Haraway, in this study, I have aimed to reveal the fact that the use of sexbots will re-establish a new type of fetishism and rape fantasy by normalizing the sexual abuse in a master-slave relationship, rather than creating post-gender worlds.