“If you can’t tell, does it matter?” : race, gender, sex and the cybergaze of Westworld’s gynoids

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dc.contributor.advisor Heffernan, Teresa, 1962-
dc.creator Shaffer, Bryn
dc.date.accessioned 2022-05-27T15:42:26Z
dc.date.available 2022-05-27T15:42:26Z
dc.date.issued 2022-04-07
dc.identifier.uri http://library2.smu.ca/xmlui/handle/01/30938
dc.description 1 online resource (105 pages)
dc.description Includes abstract.
dc.description Includes bibliographical references (pages 99-105).
dc.description.abstract HBO’s <i>Westworld</i> is a widely viewed and critically acclaimed network television program centered on robotic characters in a science fiction setting. <i>Westworld’s</i> success has been attributed in part to HBO’s trademark use of onscreen violence, sex, and brutality, as well as the show’s supposed engagement with themes of personhood, gender, and emancipation. However, <i>Westworld</i> has also been critiqued as problematic in its depictions of race, gender and sexuality in particular its characterization of robotic women (also called ‘gynoids’). This thesis interrogates these portrayals of women further with the research question ‘what androcentric and colonialist parameters inform the portrayal of filmic gynoids, as seen in HBO's <i>Westworld</i>?’ In answering this question, this thesis draws upon critical race theory, feminist theory, objectification theory and gaze theory, and asserts that <i>Westworld</i> relies on hyper-sexualized, racist, colonial and hegemonically gendered conceptions of femininity and humanity in its representation of gynoids. en_CA
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dc.description.provenance Made available in DSpace on 2022-05-27T15:42:26Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Shaffer_Bryn_MASTERS_2022.pdf: 539328 bytes, checksum: b719127b3655b45a8a4440011f71c54d (MD5) Previous issue date: 2022-04-07 en
dc.language.iso en en_CA
dc.publisher Halifax, N.S. : Saint Mary's University
dc.subject.lcsh Westworld (Television program)
dc.subject.lcsh Race on television
dc.subject.lcsh Women on television
dc.subject.lcsh Sex on television
dc.subject.lcsh Robots on television
dc.subject.lcsh Television programs -- Social aspects -- United States
dc.title “If you can’t tell, does it matter?” : race, gender, sex and the cybergaze of Westworld’s gynoids en_CA
dc.type Text en_CA
thesis.degree.name Master of Arts in Women and Gender Studies
thesis.degree.level Masters
thesis.degree.discipline Women and Gender Studies
thesis.degree.grantor Saint Mary's University (Halifax, N.S.)
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