Drones, Swarms and Becoming-Insect: Feminist Utopias and Posthuman Politics

Abstract

Insects and 'the swarm' as metaphors and objects of research have inspired works in the genres of science fiction and horror; social and political theorists; and the development of war-fighting technologies such as 'drone swarms', which function as robot/insect hybrids. Contemporary developments suggest that the future of warfare will not be 'robots' as technological, individualised substitutions for idealised (masculine) warfighters, but warfighters understood as swarms: insect metaphors for non-centrally organised problem-solvers that will become technologies of racialisation. As such, contemporary feminist analysis requires an analysis of the politics of life and death in the insect and the swarm, which, following Braidotti (2002), cannot be assumed to be a mere metaphor or representation of political life, but an animating materialist logic. The swarm is not only a metaphor but also a central mode of biopolitical and necropolitical war, with the 'terrorist' enemy represented as swarmlike as well. In analysing the relations of assemblage and antagonism in the war ontologies of the drone swarm, I seek inspiration from what Hayles (1999, p. 47) describes as a double vision that 'looks simultaneously at the power of simulation and at the materialities that produce it'. I discuss various representations and manifestations of swarms and insect life in science/speculative fiction, from various presentations of the 'Borg' in

Theorizing the advent of weaponized drones as techniques of domestic paramilitary policing

“…What it loses in symbolic potency by tempering its ‘politics of verticality’, the policing drone may gain in its pluralization as swarm. Wilcox has noted the disjuncture between the way swarming insect life has been represented in utopian feminist science fiction and ‘contemporary developments in artificial intelligence and warfare [that] suggest that the future of warfare will not be “robots” as technological, individualised substitutions for idealised (masculine) warfighters, but warfighters understood as swarms : insect metaphors for non-centrally organised, self-organising problem-solving’ (Wilcox, 2017b: 26, emphasis in original). There may be more at stake here than the reappropriation of a metaphor, and Wilcox may be mistaken to read this as a disjuncture.…”

Not just sheer pleasure: Critiquing animations and their scope in children’s socialisation

“…Webster's transformation into Web Woman-a woman with powers gifted from the insect world-and (2) the intersection of her identity as woman-as-insect with the rejection of a patriarchal social system (embodied by the male super villains) to communicate a brighter portrait of utopian reformations marked by gender-equality, mutual respect (Murphy, 2008;Wilcox, 2017), and communal harmony.…”

“…Essentially, Web Woman neither allows Kelly Webster to leave the territory of the superhero where they are monitored as "moral examples" (Loeb & Morris, 2005, p. 30) or inherent role-models to the young, nor treats her as a social pioneer (Verano, 2013) who can bring about a certain change that is both empowering and necessary. In the animation, the audience can perceive the containment of utopian imagination, but that should not discourage the viewership of an unusually different 'feminine aesthetic' at play which is combined with the 'feminine-superheroic' that endures and celebrates the possibility of utopian dreaming, now-refined by a feminist thought (Wells, 1998;Wilcox, 2017). This is precisely the very quality that enables Web Woman to depart from the category of superhero-narratives to which The Freedom Force belongs to, typically in its treatment of the 'feminine-superheroic'in the form of Web Woman-as a symbol of resistance, intellect, and perseverance (Wells, 1998).…”

“…What we want to argue is that where Isis' empowered 'Self' is usually subtly overshadowed by the presence of the male superheroes (Miller et al, 2016, para. 4), Web Woman's feminist self is protected by her frequent assimilation with the world of insects (Wilcox, 2017) that uphold her as an archetype of radicalised utopian difference (Murphy, 2008).…”

“…Despite having a few problems, Web Woman manages to blossom its links with utopianism (Fournier, 2002;Sargent, 2006) and feminism (Wells, 1998;Wilcox, 2017) and, therefore, emerges as an extraordinary archetype for what superhero narratives could be like, and should be able to inform their audiences. As a utopian subject, Web Woman succeeds to not only preserve the possibility of the development of fresh alternatives for both major and minor socio-political change, but also advocate the rise of feminist utopian traditions.…”