Introduction

Donna Haraway’s 1985 essay ‘A Manifesto for Cyborgs: Science, Technology, and Socialist Feminism in the 1980s.’ acts as a seminal piece of posthumanist literature, critiquing second wave feminist naturalistic ideas, remaining a source of debate and discussion today (Tüfenkci and Koçyiğit, 2025) (Thweatt-Bates, 2012).

Haraway’s writing opened up a world of posthuman thought within feminism, paving the way for modern ideas of feminism, gender, and the liberatory potential of technology. With this feminist reading of posthumanism, it is worth considering if posthumanism can signpost a world beyond gender. Though Haraway’s manifesto has had undeniable impact, it has been subject to criticism as a potentially technoutopian work, ignoring real-world barriers to technological access and its potential benefits (DeCook, 2021). This utopian usage of posthumanism is something Haraway herself has argued against (Gane, 2006). 

Despite a rejection of utopian posthumanism, Haraway (1991) does posit that major societal issues within divisions on racial, gendered, and class lines could be resolved with technological body modification in the form of becoming “cyborgs”. This notion of a world where these divisions no longer exist aided by technology are echoed by the technoutopian views of early 1990s internet users, a viewpoint ultimately argued against in light of digital commodification (Humdog, 1999). Due to these concerns it is important to consider how posthuman concepts such as the cyborg could potentially uphold the Western patriarchy they claim to counter (DeCook, 2021). 

Through an analysis of critical viewpoints on Donna Haraway’s Manifesto for Cyborgs, serving as a basis for posthuman thought as it relates to gender, this paper aims to consider if posthumanism can signpost a world beyond gender. Reference will be made to influential thinkers and intellectual movements on posthumanism alongside posthuman theorists themselves, and those leveraging criticism of the post-gender potential of posthumanism and the cyborg. 

What Is Posthumanism 

The term ‘posthumanism’ can refer to a wide range of thought, therefore it is necessary to be explicit about exactly what is meant by it. Only then can posthuman implications on gender be effectively considered. Nayar (2013), defines posthumanism as a framework that "sees human subjectivity as an assemblage, co-evolving with machines and animals.”. This is to say, posthumanism considers a lack of distinct boundary between humans, technology, and nature as evolutionary; not inherently positive or negative. Due to the contested nature of posthumanism as a term, Nadar’s definition, termed “critical posthumanism”, will be the primary definition considered throughout this paper.

Critical posthumanism is distinct from the technoutopian idea of transhumanism seen within popular culture as an inherently positive concept of ‘perfecting’ human limitations (Nadar, 2013). In more recent times, some theorists within this form of posthuman thought have come to use different terms, seeing issues within the conflation with transhumanism (Gane, 2006). Despite definitional contentions, posthumanism acts as a powerful framework when identifying key issues with humanist exceptionalism. One way in which it actions this is by recognising a co-existence with animals or plant life, as well as discriminatory practices amongst humans along gender, race, class, and other differences. Through this recognition of the human not as immutable or superior to other life, technology, or nature, but rather as co-existent, posthumanism can be seen to echo poststructuralist ideas of the (human) body as a point of discourse.

Poststructural discourse on the body, and particularly feminist discussion of the poststructural body lay a foundation for posthuman ideas of gender. Michel Foucault’s thesis on the body as a result of cultural conditioning (Collins, 2014) is echoed by feminist scholars such as Susan Bordo (2003), who views the gendered body as an external “weight” women are conditioned to bear. Bordo, in particular, explores how this weight of the external body impacts gendered image and conditioning of the body through behaviours such as dieting and disordered eating; this exploration, in turn, reflects Foucault’s (1979) notion of the “docile body”, wherein a body may be subjected and transformed at the hands of power. The gendered docile body is socially shaped into an idealised form of femininity (Bordo, 2003). 

Ideas of the externalised, social body can be understood as a conception of self. Where the gendered docile body is subject to external manipulation within patriarchal society, it is relevant to consider ideas of selfhood outside of the body, or, possibly, humanity itself. It is within this framework, that posthumanism can be considered a next step in feminist thought, introducing ideas of agency by potentially rejecting human embodiment and identity altogether. 

Through a critical approach, posthumanism places itself outside of naturalistic frameworks for understanding what is human (Collins, 2014), rather supporting a wide range of theoretical mechanisms for how humanity could be conceptualised outside of imposed embodied binaries and limitations; considering not simply the anti-humanist framing of “the end of man”, but the possibility of what could come after man (Bruzzone, 2022).

In summary, posthumanism is a rejection of naturalistic ideas of what it means to be ‘human’, positing that humanist exceptionalism is a problematic source of discriminatory practices (Nayar, 2013). Posthumanists consider new ways of exploring the world through our connections to nature, other animals, and, as the next section will explore, technology (Hayles, 1999). A method of understanding the technological approach to posthumanism is through the “cyborg”, described by Donna Haraway (1991) as “a cybernetic organism, a hybrid of machine and organism”. This idea of the cyborg is used to explore the self as a hybrid, literalising the notion of the posthuman and dispelling the idea of a “‘pure’ human essence”. (Collins, 2014)

The Cyborg As Liberatory Posthumanism

The final line of Donna Haraway’s (1991) Cyborg Manifesto reads “I would rather be a cyborg than a goddess”. In this statement, Haraway outlines a desire for selfhood not codified by the gendered body, but by a duality both outside of and within the body. Haraway makes it clear within this statement that her goal is not of gendered transhuman perfection, but of posthuman agency; not entirely disregarding the body but observing it as a tool. It is within this statement, too, that Haraway's approach can be observed as finding critical balance between both humanist and anti-humanist frameworks, as is contingent with posthuman discourses (Bruzzone, 2014).

This critical balance is essential in understanding the cyborg as a literalised motif of the posthuman, creating an example of what a posthuman figure could look like through familiar imagery of a science fiction modified human. Posthumanism, through the lens of the cyborg becomes more clear as a dialectical compound of poststructural, humanist, and anti-humanist thought by creating a model for what a body could appear to be after exacting agency on it in the refutation of human exceptionalism. As Collins (2014) explains, the refutation of a pure human essence does not banish the notion of human essence; it revises notions of selfhood under social subjectivity. 

With the duality inherent to the cyborg in mind, Haraway's critiques of Western scientific and political tradition can be understood. Haraway (1991) describes this as “the tradition of racist, male-dominant capitalism”. This description separates the cyborg and posthumanism from this tradition by calling it into question, while simultaneously inferring that these traditions may impact social and scientific advances. Direct counter to racism, western superiority, and male domination within the Cyborg Manifesto is provided through the cyborg's bypassing of “individuation and gender formation”, which supports domination over women. 

The cyborg’s existence as an inherently inorganic being, not intertwined with nature or humanist notions of what is “natural", allows for ideas of the gendered body to be inert when attempting to enact them onto the cyborg. By bypassing nature, questions of how the cyborg may fit into gendered labour become pertinent as gendered labour is, as Haraway (1991) states, sexualised and rooted in naturalistic readings of class society. 

Critiques of the Cyborg 

Haraway (1991) leverages the idea of the cyborg as potential for a restructuring of society, removing binary limitations and oppression bases through a technological transformation of gendered, racial, and class-based relations. It is here where the basic principle of the cyborg as a liberatory figure is contested by DeCook (2021), who questions “Who gets to be a cyborg?”, outlining the social, geographical, and racial limits when it comes to technological access; highlighting the Western ontological position that Haraway, though critical, could be considered a product of. 

Haraway’s conception of the cyborg, and her recognition of women of colour within A Manifesto for Cyborgs, is further contested by Maria Fernandez (2003) who critiques Haraway’s position of women of colour as the “quintessential cyborgs”, positing that women in the global south are forced into a close relationship with technology through assembly line labour, as opposed to the revolutionary possibilities of a close or merging relationship with technology as posited by Haraway. Fernandez’s argument, however, ignores Haraway’s interrogation of both colonialism and racism. Haraway’s writing positions itself within a Marxist and internationalist framework; in claiming, “We have all been colonized by those origin myths”, Haraway (1991) once again posits the cyborg as antithetical to naturalist myths of origin used to legitimise colonial oppression. Fernandez’s allusion to labour, however, is still pertinent within the modern application of posthumanism and the possibilities of cyborg feminism.

This issue of labour relations as they apply to gendered technological labour existed within the time of the manifesto’s publishing, with jobs such as programming existing as “male” and word processing occupying a “female” domain. This real-world gendering of technological relations goes unrecognised within Haraway’s conception of the cyborg (Halberstam and Halberstam, 1991). Alongside these gendered roles within technological work, technoscience has failed to accommodate women, asking women to “degender” and masculinise themselves in order to fit into technological institutions as opposed to rethinking ways in which these institutions could accommodate women (Wajcman, 2007). 

Notions of “degendering” so too exist within Haraway's writing, by exploring the cyborg as occupying a space between human, machine, man, and woman, Haraway (1991) does not fully critically engage with how technological society continues to enforce gendered roles and relations onto women. Through exploring women's relation to technology via labour, it becomes clearer that technology may not function as liberatory. When exploring this through a modern lens, it is relevant to recognise a shift from technological society to networked society, a new age where the notion of technological freedom from labour appears as a failed fantasy (DeCook, 2021). 

Criticism of the idealised notion of liberatory technology has been critiqued by cyberfeminists themselves, with prominent scholars disagreeing with the notion of utopian technological posthumanism, pointing out that existing issues such as sexism and racism are reproduced by new technologies (Turnbull, 2025). Despite these critiques, it is worth recognising that these theorists still consider themselves cyberfeminists, with critique of the cyborg through recognition of colonised labour already enforcing a form of cyborg consciousness within workers forced to interact with technology through capitalistic means being leveraged by Chela Sandoval (1995) within the Cyborg Handbook. It is therefore worth, as stated by Turnbull (2025), “consider(ing) the term in its plural—“cyberfeminisms.””. 

This consideration of cyberfeminism as plural extends to posthumanism in general, and in particular Donna Haraway’s origination of the Cyborg.

Critical Application of the Cyborg 

Posthumanism exists at the intersection of several modes of critical discourse (Bruzzone, 2022), as previously discussed. The notion of the posthuman is a product of critical engagement with humanist, anti-humanist, and poststructuralist histories, and as such, posthuman trains of thought and theorists encompass wide-ranging and pluralistic perspectives, theories, and discourses. It is within this plurality that the cyborg becomes an effective motif for these methods of feminist thought; by existing as a literalisation of dualistic and pluralistic interpretations of the gendered body, the cyborg exists at the centre of posthuman discourse.

Critiques of the Cyborg Manifesto such as Fernandez’s (2003) position that Haraway does not adequately recognise the coercive nature of  the relationship between women in postcolonial nations and technology fail to hold weight in the discursive history of feminist posthumanism where the idea of the cyborg has taken on wider-ranging implications. Haraway (1991) herself implies an international method of understanding the cyborg through a recognition of the gendered body and its implications within labour, not as inherently western but as an international power struggle. This labour power relation identifies the cyborg not as science-fiction, or a futuristic possibility but a reality where cyborg skills have already been developed by oppressed workers in order to function within international, corporate, industrialised institutions (Sandoval, 1995). 

Approaches such as DeCook’s (2021) positing that the cyborg is in and of itself, "fraught with a Western, patriarchal violence,” relies on a conflation of Haraway’s position as a white, Western thinker with Western patriarchal ideology with little recognition of  the ways in which she countered these notions within A Manifesto for Cyborgs. Haraway (1991) considers the cyborg within the model of agency. This agency framework places the cyborg in line with both social constructionist and embodiment approaches to the body, such as Foucault's (1979) notion that the body is socially regulated, later, thematically countered and built upon by Sweetman’s (1999) analysis of body modification as identity construction and embodiment through opposition to dominant Western gendered aesthetics and physical expectations of those within the labour market. Just as a prominent facial tattoo may place an individual outside of Western structures of beauty and traditional labour viability, constructing an identity of otherness, so too does the cyborg. The cyborg stands as an identity constructed of agency in direct opposition to Western patriarchy. 

Furthermore, critiques of the cyborg as not recognising the gendering of labour as it relates to technology hold propensity to fall into naturalistic notions of the body. The dualism within Haraway's (1991) writing inherently argues against and separates itself from the "natural"; where notions of women’s lack of access to technology are highlighted by writers such as Halberstam and Halberstam (1991) or Wajcman (2007), a clear counter can be found within the simplicity of Haraway’s (1991) definition of the cyborg's existence as “a creature in a post-gender world”. In this definition, Haraway does not attempt to outline the cyborg as the harbinger of the postgender world, nor does she claim that a postgender world is inherently one without inequality, directly stating the “cyborg incarnation is outside salvation history”; not a healing of gender or the inequalities that stem from it. This reading of the cyborg outlines how Haraway does not operate from a position of pure utopianism; the cyborg provides opportunities and possibilities with new technologies (Turnbull, 2025) but is not inherently a figure of salvation. 

Reading the Cyborg Manifesto in this way allows for a nuanced view of critiques of the essay as it relates to networked society. DeCook’s (2021) mapping of the failings of networked society in pursuit of utopian technological society onto Haraway’s conception of the cyborg overlooks the nuances of the cyborg as a discursive object. Critiquing the cyborg through criticism of technoutopian ideals misses the reflexivity and criticality inherent within both the Cyborg Manifesto and critical posthumanism in general. 

Conclusion 

Through exploring Donna Haraway's Manifesto for Cyborgs as a critical motif for posthumanism, it can be understood that posthumanism not only signposts a world beyond gender but directly promotes and conceptualises such a world. In examining critique of Haraway’s work, it becomes clear that this notion of a world beyond gender may be viewed as a technoutopian framework.

Though differences across class, race, and gender lines do exist within access to technology, and that different women’s relationship to technology may not mirror Haraway’s positive framing of the merging of woman and machine, posthumanist thinkers do not ignore this. By exploring posthumanism through internationally socialist lenses like thinkers such as Haraway and Sandoval, it is understood that posthumanism recognises the Western patriarchal origins and barriers present within technological society, and how these affect women globally, forced to adopt a cyborg mindset in order to undertake labour. 

Posthumanism signposts a world beyond gender, not in a utopian future where technology frees women from networked sexism, but in recognising the ways in which a relationship to technology can be reclaimed and blur lines between not only gender, but humanity itself. Despite these conclusions, it is pertinent to recognise that Haraway’s conception of the posthuman is not the only viewpoint or stance on the idea. Posthumanist rhetoric has been used in wider contexts, such as by Humanity+ (n.d.) to justify an ‘enhancement’ of human capabilities as opposed to liberation from embodied social structures of oppression.

These points of contention found within posthumanist discourse could provide further context for the merits or demerits of posthumanism and its potential in signposting a world beyond gender. Within the scope of Donna Haraway’s Manifesto for Cyborgs, critique, and support of it, however, posthumanism can be considered to signpost a world beyond gender.