Rereading cyborg(?) women: The visual rhetoric of images of cyborg (and cyber) bodies on the World Wide Web

Haraway's "A Manifesto for Cyborgs" marked a turning point in theory analyz ing the intersections of machine and body. In the manifesto, she defined a cyborg as "a cybernetic organism, a hybrid of machine and organism, a creat ure of social reality as well as a creature of fiction." Haraway argued for finding pleasure in the border zone between social and body reality-a zone where post-genderedness is a possibility, a zone free of the boundaries of public and private. Although a variety of theorists have utilized Haraway' s work in arguing for the allure of the cyborg or the pleasures of cyborg d iscourse, few theorists have approached the cyborg as physical reality. As Gonzalez notes, where visual representations of the cyborg do exist, rarely are traditional, gendered Western roles (and bodies) challenged. The machi nic, while offering liberation from gender, usually serves merely to reinfo rce the gender dynamics currently at play. In this article, I discuss image s of "cyborg" men and women found on the World Wide Web and argue that most visual representations of cyborg bodies are actually representations of "c yber" bodies, which reinforce contemporary notions of masculinity, feminini ty, heterosexuality, and power. I will also, however, discuss other images that represent the possibilities Haraway and other theorists envision cybor gs as providing. These departures from cyber bodies offer productive ruptur es through which alternative constructions of cyborg bodies can be envision ed.