Malfuctioning Bodies: Sexuality, Technology, and Power in Cyberpunk Film (1982-1997).

Abstract

This thesis uses Postmodern Queer and Feminist scholarship to explore the intersections between Sexuality, Economics, and Selfhood across four key Cyberpunk films spanning from 1982 until 1997. Chapter 1 engages with the cultural myth of “Hard Body” masculinity as it appears in Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner and David Cronenberg’s Videodrome. Chapter 2 focuses on depictions of women’s agency in Satoshi Kon’s Perfect Blue and Mamoru Oshii’s Ghost in the Shell. Ultimately, all films provide examples of the struggle and violence that comes from a body in crisis.