ABSTRACT
The conclusion reviews the dual characteristics of the female robot, or gynoid, discussed throughout the book, as both a figure that exposes heteronormative power structures and a subversive and emancipatory one. Analysing the regressive gender representations of real-life gynoids in the form of smart devices and digital personal assistants (Siri, Alexa, Cortana, etc.), the chapter discusses how these are at odds with many more recent representation of gynoids in film, TV, literature and video games. The chapter suggests that the digital personal assistant is beginning to supplement the domestic labour in the household and, coded female, maintains the heteronormative stereotype of the passive femininity. Meanwhile, in fiction, there seems to be a growing suspicion of this normative fantasy of the subservient female domestic servant: it is being problematised in TV shows like Westworld and Humans and video games like Detroit: Become Human. While the gynoids of the real world are becoming more regressive in their politics, the chapter calls for a much-needed feminist politics of becoming-gynoid which embraces female selfhood and autonomy implied by the post-human, bodily augmentation and control of the gynoid figure.
