Not JUST a Woman: a Cyborg

            In her article, I believe Richards posits that women who have successfully achieved political power today have done so by, in some way, emphasizing their ability to be more than "just a woman" - rather, these women in political power have proven that, in some ways, they can use technology to somehow liberate themselves from their female bodies and maintain qualities which are, today, thought of as more "masculine." (Richards 4).

            What, though, is the reconfiguration of feminism that Richards posits? Keya Maitra, I believe, informs us of this answer by noting Sandra Bartky's development of feminist consciousness. Feminist consciousness is a woman's understand that "the entire structure of socioeconomic and cultural systems ... work[s] toward women's oppression." Thus, feminist consciousness is a "consciousness of victimization" that seeks the "possibilities of change, transformation, and eventually liberation." (Maitra 367).

            Maitra attempts to reconfigure the feminist consciousness by advocating for a change in the way we view the oppression of women: rather than viewing women's oppression as a group, Maitra claims that we should be open to understanding the cultural differences that lead to each individual woman's oppression. (Maitra 368).

            Richards offers another tactic. Rather than reconfiguring the feminist consciousness by more thoroughly understanding individualized oppression, or even on the oppression of women itself, Richards offers a new focus: women's abilities, through technology, to act as a "cyborg": that is, to overcome the limitations of our female bodies when necessary to promote a facade of strength. (Richards 10). For example, Richards notes the chant in Liberia of "Ellen--she's our man," and extrapolates that "this woman president cannot be just a woman, but must transcend biologically determined sex and culturally constructed gender to become a cyborg that can shape and shift gender for the given rhetorical situation."

            Richards notes numerous times that Benazir Bhutto of Pakistan did an excellent job expressing the "cyborg" personality by planning a C-section after her due date to minimize the times she was "incapacitated" in the political opposition's eyes. (Richards 13).

            Richards posits that, in order to achieve politically, women must embody this "cyborg" mentality and gender-shift when necessary to show both traditional feminine emotion and empathy and traditional masculine strength and power. One explicit example of this is Richards' analysis of why Segolene Royal of France lost to Nicolas Sarkozy in the fall election; Royal "appears to perform a rejection/ignorance of the iron lady that has traditionally broken the glass ceilings of other countries." (Richards 12). Because Royal failed to show her ability to be a "cyborg" and display a "manlier" side evoking power, Richards believes she did not win in the election: "Much of the criticism around Royal after her defeat centered on how France could have accepted an iron lady into the 'old boy's club' of French presidents, but not a sexually attractive mother or a Socialist in Stilettos." (Richards 13).

            Thus, I believe that, by focusing on how women can overcome oppression, as opposed to focusing on how women become aware of their oppression, as did Maitra, Richards offers a new reconfiguration of feminism.