Donna Harraway

Donna Harraway suggests that she would rather be a cyborg than a goddess for a number because she sees it as a conduit through which she will be able to address the concerns affecting women in a technologically transformed society. This is driven by the fact that cyborgs are highly offensive monsters whose vulnerability is much high with the regard to the moral ideology promoted by the majority. Hence, Donna seeks to exploit the element of vulnerability to encourage the development of positive criticism against the cyborgs, which will enable her to achieve the strategic goals of addressing feminism issues. In her manifesto, the cyborgs make a solemn declaration that seeks to merge evangelical, secular, and the country political traditions in addressing the existing socialist feminism. This implies that the cyborgs will provide a suitable platform through which all equality exceeds the differences existing between them.

Donna Harraway also prefers to be a cyborg because she believes that they will be understood better than the symbolic goddess, which is shrouded in extreme mystery. Thus, by using cyborgs, it will be possible to achieve a high level of understanding in the domain of science of technology. This implies that she feels cyborgs are symbolically identical to technologically transformed mutants, but with the human characteristics. In this regard, she can use the cyborgs to simulate specific events that are in line with the cyber world. Moreover, cyborgs are highly visual elements that can be equated to an intelligent camera, which follows bodies, records their every movement, and have a capability to condemn. Thus, using by being a cyborg, Donna acquires a transformational image that can be disintegrated and still reform itself for maximum efficacy. Finally, she will also be able to achieve self gratitude as well as a collective dimension.

How Donna Seeks to Integrate Technology with Real Life

Donna hopes to integrate technology into human lives by focusing on the centers of a human, which entail the physical, emotional, social, cultural, and biological perspectives. In this regard, Donna seeks to establish a framework that will enable technology to be used by humans in a beneficial way. From a feminist perspective, Donna silently wishes that technological gadgets could reflect human emotion by not being mere objects that can respond to pre-programmed instructions. Using the emotional perspective, Donna wants humans to appreciate their creation as objects that can be used to make life easy.  Thus, she envisions the incorporation of emotional intelligence into technology so that it can be used to address the social barriers promoted in a society with the regard to gender. She understands that humans are the ones responsible for the poor reflection of feminist traits in technology; hence, she invites them to improve interaction in order to achieve the goals of communication.

Moreover, Donna seeks to integrate technology into human lives by establishing a barrier between fantasy and reality. She sees that without establishing a clear line between the two, this will encourage the development of an irreversible techno-cultural association, which undermines the goals of society. By doing this, she discourages male-dominated perspectives in the design principles of technology. She seeks to bridge the gap in technology by encouraging more application of feminine intuition into the domain of technology and design. In doing this, Donna encourages the adoption of an accommodative culture that will encourage technology to emulate human lifestyle. From a futurist perspective, Donna projects the use of technology in a postmodern era where the massive change will have take place in the social, cultural, and political domains of human life. Additionally, Donna points out that in as much as technology has become more user-friendly, it fails to address the cultural transition that has taken place among humans; hence, she seeks the incorporation of culture in the enhancement of technology. 

Artists who make a Case for the ‘Coyotes’

There are several artists who present an interesting perspective on the ‘coyotes’ expressed in Donna’s manifesto. One of such artists is Lynn Randolph (2010). In her work “the modest witness: A painter’s collaboration with Donna Harraway,” she acknowledges Donna’s new approaches in tackling the barrier between nature and culture. She proposes that humans are not mere players in their interaction with technology. She encourages them to become more proactive and less passive when assessing the dynamism expressed in science and technology. She throws in a pun in Donna’s perspective that in the same way humans converse with wily coyotes, they need to acknowledge their selective approaches towards feminist notions. Indeed, Randolph presents a convincing case in reference to the discreet element of  the human nature.

Another artist who makes a case on the ‘coyotes’ is Lesley Instone (1998). In her article “the coyote’s at the door: revision of the human environment relations in the Australian context,” she supports that coyotes are responsible for the disruption that has taken place in the human social domain. In essence, Instone puts the ‘coyotes’ in their natural context by considering the context of eco-feminism. Naturally, we would expect the coyotes to operate in a setting where they accrue the most benefit. Hence, Instone points out how the current framework does not competently address feminine issues in the context of the environment. In this regard, we can use Donna’s perspective that coyotes are shrouded in mystery; therefore, understanding them is a complex affair. Nevertheless, coyotes are still determined in achieving the mission of betraying the modern social structure.