Gynoid

A gynoid is anything that resembles or pertains to the female human form. Though the term android has been used to refer to robotic humanoids regardless of apparent gender, the Greek prefix "andr-" refers to man in the masculine sense.{{cite dictionary | first1=Henry George |last1=Liddell |first2=Robert |last2=Scott |title=A Greek-English Lexicon |entry= ἄνδρεσι [andresi] |entry-url=https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.04.0057%3Aentry%3Da)nh%2Fr |location=Oxford |publisher=Clarendon Press |date=1940 |via=perseus.tufts.edu}}

The term gynoid was first used by Isaac Asimov in a 1979 editorial, as a theoretical female equivalent of the word android.{{cite web |title= gynoid|url= https://sfdictionary.com/view/2481/gynoid|website=Historical Dictionary of Science Fiction|access-date=18 May 2021}}

Other possible names for feminine robots exist. The portmanteau "fembot" (feminine robot) was used as far back as 1959, in Fritz Leiber's The Silver Eggheads, applying specifically to non-sentient female sexbots.{{cite book |last=Leiber |first=Fritz |title=The Silver Eggheads |location=New York |publisher=Ballantine PBO |date=1961}} It was popularized by the television series The Bionic Woman in the episode "Kill Oscar" (1976){{cite book |last=Wosk |first=Julie |title=My Fair Ladies: Female Robots, Androids, and Other Artificial Eves |publisher= Rutgers Univ. Press |date=2015 |pages=114–115}} and later used in the Austin Powers films, among others. "Robotess" is the oldest female-specific term, originating in 1921 from Rossum's Universal Robots, the same source as the term "robot".

{{cquote|...the great majority of robots were either machine-like, male-like or child-like for the reasons that not only are virtually all roboticists male, but also that fembots posed greater technical difficulties. Not only did the servo motor and platform have to be 'interiorized' (naizō suru), but the body [of the fembot] needed to be slender, both extremely difficult undertakings.
{{emdash}}Tomotaka Takahashi, roboticist{{cite book|last1=Takahashi|first1=Tomotaka|title=Robotto no tensei|date=2006|publisher=Media Factory, Inc.|page=194}}}}

Examples of notable feminine robots include:

• EveR-1{{cite journal | title =I'm your guide | journal = Science | date = 9 June 2006 | volume =312 | issue = 5779 | page = 1449 | doi = 10.1126/science.312.5779.1449d | s2cid = 220087882 }}
• Actroid, designed by Hiroshi Ishiguro to be "a perfect secretary who smiles and flutters her eyelids"{{cite news | url = http://www.popsci.com/scitech/article/2006-08/fembot-mystique | title = The Fembot Mystique | work = Popular Science | first = Annalee | last = Newitz | date = 10 August 2006}}
• HRP-4C{{cite news | url = http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/7946780.stm | title = Lifelike walking female robot | work = BBC News | date = 16 March 2009}}
• Meinü robot{{cite news | url = http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2006-08/04/content_657625.htm | title = First Chinese 'beauty' robot destined for Sichuan | date = 4 August 2006 | work = China Daily}}{{cite news | url = http://english.sina.com/p/1/2006/0808/85533.html | title = 1st beauty robot in China | date = 8 August 2006 | work = Sina.com}}
• Ai-Da, the world's first robot art system to be embodied as a humanoid robot.{{Cite news |date=18 May 2021 |title='Some people feel threatened': face to face with Ai-Da the robot artist |url=http://www.theguardian.com/culture/2021/may/18/some-people-feel-threatened-face-to-face-with-ai-da-the-robot-artist |access-date=2021-06-03 |newspaper=The Guardian|language=en}}{{cite news | newspaper=The Guardian | url=https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2022/apr/04/mind-blowing-ai-da-becomes-first-robot-to-paint-like-an-artist | first=Caroline | last=Davies | title='Mind-blowing': Ai-Da becomes first robot to paint like an artist | accessdate=4 April 2022}}
• Vyommitra (Sanskrit: {{lang|sa|Vyōma}} {{gloss|space}}, {{lang|sa|Mitra}} {{gloss|friend}}) is a female humanoid robot designed for space travel. She was developed by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) to function aboard the spacecraft Gaganyaan, a crewed orbital spacecraft.

Researchers note the connection between the design of feminine robots and roboticists' assumptions about gendered appearance and labor. Fembots in Japan, for example, are designed with slenderness and grace in mind,{{cite journal|last1=Robertson|first1=Jennifer|title=Gendering Humanoid Robots: Robo-Sexism in Japan|journal=Body & Society|date=June 2010|volume=16|issue=2|pages=1–36|doi= 10.1177/1357034X10364767|s2cid=144100334}} and they are employed to help to maintain traditional family structures and politics in a nation of population decline.{{cite journal|last1=Robertson|first1=Jennifer|title=ROBO SAPIENS JAPANICUS Humanoid Robots and the Posthuman Family|journal=Critical Asian Studies|date=September 2007|volume=39|issue=3|pages=369–98|doi=10.1080/14672710701527378|s2cid=145141775}}

People's reactions to fembots are also attributable to gender stereotypes. Research in this area is aimed at elucidating gender cues, clarifying which behaviors and aesthetics elicit a stronger gender-induced response.{{cite journal | last1 = Carpenter | first1 = J. | last2 = Davis | first2 = J. | last3 = Erwin-Stewart | first3 = N. | last4 = Lee | first4 = T. | last5 = Bransford | first5 = J. | last6 = Vye | first6 = N. |date=March 2009 | title = Gender representation in humanoid robots for domestic use | journal = International Journal of Social Robotics | publisher = Springer Netherlands | doi = 10.1007/s12369-009-0016-4 | pages = 261–265| volume = 1| issue = 3| s2cid = 31454883 }}

{{See also|Sex robot}}

File:Sweetheart gynoid berkley.jpg at University of California, Berkeley.]]

Gynoids may be "eroticized", and some examples such as Aiko include sensitivity sensors in their breasts and genitals to facilitate sexual response.{{cite web | url = http://www.projectaiko.com/faq.html | title = Frequently Asked Question(s) | work = Project Aiko}} The fetishization of gynoids in real life has been attributed to male desires for custom-made passive women and compared to life-size sex dolls.{{cite book |title= The desirable body: cultural fetishism and the erotics of consumption|last= Stratton|first=Jon |year= 2001|publisher=University of Illinois Press|location=US |isbn=978-0-252-06951-2 | quote = The automaton becomes both a philosophical toy and sexual fetish; I extend the meaning of gynoid to include non-mechanical models of women such life-size dolls | page = 21}} However, some science fiction works depict them as femmes fatales, fighting the establishment or being rebellious.{{Cite news|last=Rose|first=Steve|date=15 January 2015|title=Ex Machina and sci-fi's obsession with sexy female robots|language=en-GB|work=The Guardian|url=https://www.theguardian.com/film/2015/jan/15/ex-machina-sexy-female-robots-scifi-film-obsession|access-date=29 May 2023|issn=0261-3077}}{{Cite news |url=https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2015/jul/13/living-dolls-artificial-women-robots |title=Living dolls: sci-fi's fascination with artificial women |first=Nicola |last=Davis |newspaper=The Observer |date=13 January 2015 |access-date=29 May 2023}} (interview with Julie Wosk)

In 1983, a female robot named "Sweetheart" was removed from a display at the Lawrence Hall of Science; the robot's breasts, perceived as an exaggerated feature, resulted in a petition being presented claiming it was insulting to women. The robot's creator, Clayton Bailey, a professor of art at California State University, Hayward called this "censorship" and "next to book burning".{{cite news | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=qmQ8V0Htqu0C&q=busty%20female%20robot&pg=PA352 | title = Too serious for Professor Bailey | date = 3 November 1983 | work = New Scientist vol 100 November 3, 1983, Page 352 }}{{Dead link|date=March 2024 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}

{{See also|List of fictional gynoids}}

Artificial women have been a common trope in fiction and mythology since the writings of the ancient Greeks (see the myth of Pygmalion). In science fiction, female-appearance robots are often produced for use as domestic servants and sexual slaves, as seen in the film Westworld, in Paul J. McAuley's novel Fairyland (1995), and in Lester del Rey's short story "Helen O'Loy" (1938),{{cite book |title= Technophobia!: Science Fiction Visions of Posthuman Technology|last= Dinello|first= Daniel |year= 2005|publisher= University of Texas Press|page= 77|isbn=978-0-292-70986-7}} and sometimes as warriors, killers, or laborers. The character of Annalee Call in Alien Resurrection is a rare example of a non-sexualized gynoid. In Xenosaga, a role-playing video game, the character "KOS-MOS" is a female armored android.{{Cite book |url=http://archive.org/details/xenosagaepisodeibradygamesofficialstrategyguide |title=Xenosaga Episode I Bradygames Official Strategy Guide |page=20 |language=English}}

Image:Falconet - Pygmalion & Galatee (1763)-black bg.jpg: Pygmalion et Galatée (1763). Although not robotic, Galatea's inorganic origin has led to comparisons with gynoids.]]

A long tradition exists in literature of the construction of an artificial embodiment of a certain type of ideal woman, and fictional gynoids have been seen as an extension of this theme.{{sfnp|Melzer|2006| page = [https://archive.org/details/alienconstructio00melz/page/n214 202]}} Examples include Hephaestus in the Iliad who created female servants of metal, and Ilmarinen in the Kalevala who created an artificial wife. Pygmalion, from Ovid's account, is one of the earliest conceptualizations of constructions similar to gynoids in literary history.{{sfnp|Melzer|2006| page = [https://archive.org/details/alienconstructio00melz/page/n214 202]}} In this myth a female statue is sculpted that is so beautiful that the creator falls in love with it, and after praying to Aphrodite, the goddess takes pity on him and converts the statue into a real woman, Galatea, with whom Pygmalion has children.

The Maschinenmensch ("machine-human"), also called "Parody," "Futura," "Robotrix," or the "Maria impersonator," in Fritz Lang's Metropolis is the first example of gynoid in film: a femininely shaped robot is given skin so that she is not known to be a robot and successfully impersonates the imprisoned Maria and works convincingly as an exotic dancer.{{sfnp|Melzer|2006| page = [https://archive.org/details/alienconstructio00melz/page/n214 202]}}

Fictional gynoids are often unique products made to fit a particular man's desire, as seen in the novel Tomorrow's Eve and films The Perfect Woman, The Stepford Wives, Mannequin and Weird Science,{{cite book |title= The desirable body: cultural fetishism and the erotics of consumption|last= Stratton|first=Jon |year= 2001|publisher=University of Illinois Press|location=US |isbn=978-0-252-06951-2 | page = 230}} and the creators are often male "mad scientists" such as the characters Rotwang in Metropolis, Tyrell in Blade Runner, and the husbands in The Stepford Wives.{{cite book |title= Technophobia!: Science Fiction Visions of Posthuman Technology|last= Dinello|first= Daniel |year= 2005|publisher= University of Texas Press|page= 78|isbn=978-0-292-70986-7}} Gynoids have been described as the "ultimate geek fantasy: a metal-and-plastic woman of your own."{{cite web | url = http://www.popsci.com/cars/article/2008-12/return-bodacious-bots | title = Return of the Bodacious 'Bots | first = Julia | last = Wallace | date = 16 December 2008 | work = Popular Science}}

The Bionic Woman television series popularized the word fembot. These fembots were a line of powerful, lifelike gynoids with the faces of protagonist Jaime Sommers's best friends.{{cite book| last=Browne |first= Ray B.|title=Forbidden Fruits: Taboos and Tabooism in Culture |publisher=Popular Press |date=1984 |isbn=9780879722555}} They fought in two multi-part episodes of the series: "Kill Oscar" and "Fembots in Las Vegas," and despite the feminine prefix, there were also male versions, including some designed to impersonate particular individuals for the purpose of infiltration. While not truly artificially intelligent, the fembots still had extremely sophisticated programming that allowed them to pass for human in most situations. The term fembot was also used in Buffy the Vampire Slayer.Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Episode 5/15, "I Was Made To Love You." First aired February 1, 2001.

The 1987 science-fiction film Cherry 2000 portrayed a gynoid character which was described by the male protagonist as his "perfect partner". The 1964 TV series My Living Doll features a robot, portrayed by Julie Newmar, who is similarly described. The film Her (2013) depicts an Artificial Intelligence assistant called Samantha, whom the protagonist, Theodore, falls in love with until her intelligence surpasses human comprehension and she leaves to fulfil her higher purpose.

More recently, the 2015 science-fiction film Ex Machina featured a genius inventor experimenting with gynoids in an effort to create the perfect companion.

Fiction about gynoids or female cyborgs reinforce essentialist ideas of femininity, according to Margret Grebowicz.{{cite book |title= SciFi in the mind's eye: reading science through science fiction|last= Grebowicz|first= Margret |author2=L. Timmel Duchamp |author3=Nicola Griffith |author4=Terry Bisson |year=2007 |publisher= Open Court|page=xviii |isbn=978-0-8126-9630-1}} Such essentialist ideas may present as sexual or gender stereotypes. Among the few non-eroticized fictional gynoids include Rosie the Robot Maid from The Jetsons. However, she still has some stereotypical feminine qualities, such as a matronly shape and a predisposition to cry.{{cite book |title= The Social Psychology of Gender: How Power and Intimacy Shape Gender Relations|url= https://archive.org/details/socialpsychology00phdl|url-access= limited|last= Rudman|first= Laurie A.|author2=Peter Glick |author3=Susan T. Fiske |year=2008 |publisher= Guilford Press|page=[https://archive.org/details/socialpsychology00phdl/page/n191 178] |isbn=978-1-59385-825-4}}

Image:Fembots 2 APIMOM.jpg]]

The stereotypical role of wifedom has also been explored through use of gynoids. In The Stepford Wives, husbands are shown as desiring to restrict the independence of their wives, and obedient and stereotypical spouses are preferred. The husbands' technological method of obtaining this "perfect wife" is through the murder of their human wives and replacement with gynoid substitutes that are compliant and housework obsessed, resulting in a "picture-postcard" perfect suburban society. This has been seen as an allegory of male chauvinism of the period, by representing marriage as a master-slave relationship, and an attempt at raising feminist consciousness during the era of second wave feminism.

In a parody of the fembots from The Bionic Woman, attractive, blonde fembots in alluring baby-doll nightgowns were used as a lure for the fictional agent Austin Powers in the movie Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery. The film's sequels had cameo appearances of characters revealed as fembots.

Jack Halberstam writes that these gynoids inform the viewer that femaleness does not indicate naturalness, and their exaggerated femininity and sexuality is used in a similar way to the title character's exaggerated masculinity, lampooning stereotypes.{{cite book |title= In a Queer Time and Place: Transgender Bodies, Subcultural Lives|last= Halberstam|first= Judith |year= 2005|publisher=NYU Press |page= 144|isbn=978-0-8147-3585-5}}

{{Sex in SF mini}}

Some argue that gynoids have often been portrayed as sexual objects. Female cyborgs have been similarly used in fiction, in which natural bodies are modified to become objects of fantasy.{{sfnp|Melzer|2006| page = [https://archive.org/details/alienconstructio00melz/page/n214 202]}} The female robot in visual media has been described as "the most visible linkage of technology and sex" by Steven Heller.{{cite book |title= Sex appeal: the art of allure in graphic and advertising design|last= Heller|first= Steven |page=155 |year= 2000|publisher= Allworth Press|isbn=978-1-58115-048-3}}

Feminist critic Patricia Melzer writes in Alien Constructions: Science Fiction and Feminist Thought that gynoids in Richard Calder's Dead Girls are inextricably linked to men's lust, and are mainly designed as sex objects, having no use beyond "pleasing men's violent sexual desires."{{sfnp|Melzer|2006| page = [https://archive.org/details/alienconstructio00melz/page/n216 204]}}

The gynoid character Eve from the film Eve of Destruction has been described as "a literal sex bomb," with her subservience to patriarchal authority and a bomb in place of reproductive organs. In the 1949 film The Perfect Woman, the titular robot, Olga, is described as having "no sex," but Steve Chibnall writes in his essay "Alien Women" in British Science Fiction Cinema that it is clear from her fetishistic underwear that she is produced as a toy for men, with an "implicit fantasy of a fully compliant sex machine."{{cite book |last1=Hunter |first1=I. Q. |title=British Science Fiction Cinema |date=4 January 2002 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-134-70277-0 |page=58 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2SuEAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA58 |language=en}} In the film Westworld, female robots actually engaged in intercourse with human men as part of the make-believe vacation world human customers paid to attend.

Sexual interest in gynoids and fembots has been attributed to fetishisation of technology, and compared to sadomasochism in that it reorganizes the social risk of sex. The depiction of female robots minimizes the threat felt by men from female sexuality and allow the "erasure of any social interference in the spectator's erotic enjoyment of the image."{{cite book |title= The souls of cyberfolk: posthumanism as vernacular theory|last= Foster|first=Thomas |year= 2005|publisher= U of Minnesota Press |isbn=978-0-8166-3406-4 | page = 103 | quote = Gynoids are frames that enable us to desire differently, by accommodating libidinal-investments in male lack.}} Gynoid fantasies are produced and collected by online communities centered around chat rooms and web site galleries.{{cite book |title= The souls of cyberfolk: posthumanism as vernacular theory|last= Foster|first=Thomas |year= 2005|publisher= U of Minnesota Press |isbn=978-0-8166-3406-4 | page = 103}}

Isaac Asimov writes that his robots were generally sexually neutral and that giving the majority masculine names was not an attempt to comment on gender. He first wrote about female-appearing robots at the request of editor Judy-Lynn del Rey.{{cite book |title= The Bicentennial man and other stories|url= https://archive.org/details/bicentennialmano00asim|url-access= registration|last= Asimov|page=[https://archive.org/details/bicentennialmano00asim/page/5 5] |year= 1976|publisher= Doubleday|isbn=978-0-385-12198-9}}{{cite book|title= I. Asimov: a memoir|last= Asimov|first= Isaac|page= [https://archive.org/details/iasimovmemoir00asim_0/page/320 320]|year= 1994|publisher= Doubleday|isbn= 978-0-385-41701-3|url= https://archive.org/details/iasimovmemoir00asim_0/page/320}} Asimov's short story "Feminine Intuition" (1969) is an early example that showed gynoids as being as capable and versatile as male robots, with no sexual connotations.{{cite book|title= Gold: the final science-fiction-collection|last= Asimov|first= Isaac|page= [https://archive.org/details/goldfinalscience00asim/page/172 172]|year= 1995|publisher= HarperPrism|isbn= 978-0-06-105206-4|url= https://archive.org/details/goldfinalscience00asim/page/172}} Early models in "Feminine Intuition" were "female caricatures," used to highlight their human creators' reactions to the idea of female robots. Later models lost obviously feminine features, but retained "an air of femininity."{{cite book |title= The Bicentennial man and other stories|url= https://archive.org/details/bicentennialmano00asim|url-access= registration|last= Asimov|page=[https://archive.org/details/bicentennialmano00asim/page/15 15] |year= 1976|publisher= Doubleday|isbn=978-0-385-12198-9}}

Critics have commented on the problematic nature of assigning a gender to an artificial object with no consciousness of its own, based purely on its appearance or sound.{{Cite web|last=Lewis|first=Tanya|date=20 February 2015|title=Rise of the Fembots: Why Artificial Intelligence Is Often Female|url=https://www.livescience.com/49882-why-robots-female.html|access-date=2020-12-11|website=LiveScience|language=en}} It has also been argued that innovations should part from this essentialising notion of a woman and focus on the purpose of creating robots, without making them explicitly male or female.{{Cite web|last=Zuin|first=Lidia|date=2017-07-01|title=A brief history of men who build female robots|url=https://medium.com/startup-grind/a-brief-history-of-men-who-build-female-robots-fde981db8104|access-date=2020-12-11|website=Medium|language=en}} Very few robots are explicitly assigned the male gender, contributing to the male default narrative.{{Cite book|last=Perez|first=Caroline Criado|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=MKZYDwAAQBAJ|title=Invisible Women: Exposing Data Bias in a World Designed for Men|date=2019-03-07|publisher=Random House|isbn=978-1-4735-4829-9|language=en}} Critics have also noticed how the creation of gynoids is associated with service roles, while androids or systems with male voices are employed in positions of leadership.{{Cite web|last=Hern|first=Alex|date=2019-03-04|title=Adios, Alexa: why must our robot assistants be female?|url=http://www.theguardian.com/technology/shortcuts/2019/mar/04/adios-alexa-why-must-our-robot-assistants-be-female|access-date=2020-12-11|website=The Guardian|language=en}}

• {{Annotated link |Actroid}}
• {{Annotated link |Android (robot)|Android}}

• {{anli|Ex Machina (film)|Ex Machina (film)}}
• List of fictional gynoids
• {{anli|The Future Eve|The Future Eve}}
• {{Annotated link |Cyborg}}
• {{Annotated link |Gender in speculative fiction}}
• {{Annotated link |Robot fetishism}}
• {{Annotated link |Sex doll}}
• {{Annotated link |Sex robot}}
• {{Annotated link |Sophia (robot)}}
• {{anli|Uncanny valley}}

{{Reflist|30em}}

{{refbegin}}

• {{cite book | first = Patricia | last = Melzer | title = Alien Constructions: Science Fiction and Feminist Thought | publisher = University of Texas Press | year = 2006 | isbn = 978-0-292-71307-9}}

{{refend}}

• {{cite book | last = Ferrando | first = Francesca | year = 2015 | chapter = Of Posthuman Born: Gender, Utopia and the Posthuman | editor-last1 = Hauskeller | editor-first1 = M. | editor-last2 = Carbonell | editor-first2 = C. | editor-last3 = Philbeck | editor-first3 = T. | title = Handbook on Posthumanism in Film and Television | location = London | publisher = Palgrave MacMillan | isbn = 978-1-137-43032-8}}
• {{cite book | last = Jordanova | first = Ludmilla | author-link = Ludmilla Jordanova | year = 1989 | title = Sexual Visions: Images of Gender in Science and Medicine between the Eighteenth and Twentieth Centuries | location = Madison, Wis. | publisher = University of Wisconsin Press | isbn = 0-299-12290-5 | url = https://archive.org/details/sexualvisionsima00jord }}
• {{cite book | last = Leman | first = Joy | year = 1991 | chapter = Wise Scientists and Female Androids: Class and Gender in Science Fiction | editor-last = Corner | editor-first = John | title = Popular Television in Britain | location = London | publisher = BFI Publishing | isbn = 0-85170-269-4}}

• {{cite book |title= The desirable body: cultural fetishism and the erotics of consumption|last= Stratton|first=Jon |year= 2001|publisher=University of Illinois Press|location=US |isbn=978-0-252-06951-2}}
• {{cite book |title= The souls of cyberfolk: posthumanism as vernacular theory|last= Foster|first=Thomas |year= 2005|publisher= U of Minnesota Press |isbn=978-0-8166-3406-4}}

{{wiktionary}}

• {{Commons category-inline|Gynoids}}

{{Androids}}

{{Robotics}}

{{Science fiction}}

{{Authority control}}

Category:Science fiction themes

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Category:Android (robot)

Category:Women in fiction