“Ghost in the Shell” is a wonderful film which provides multiple possibilities of interpretations from all kinds of perspectives. It recalls my feelings when watching Paprika and Akira. However, Oshii's work shows more monumentality through the pace and scores of this film. The reading “A Cyborg Manifesto” by Haraway is very dense and complicated. It is almost impossible to thoroughly digest her arguments without discussing Marx, Lacan, Guy Debord, Jean Francois Lyotard, or even Michael Foucault etc. From my reading, the attempt to eliminate the binary dichotomy between male and female through cyborgs lies in failing another homogenous duality: the origin of women from nature and culture.
As Haraway says that “the cyborg would not recognize the Garden of Eden: it is not made of mud and cannot dream of returning to dust,” cyborgs abandon all chains bounding women through cutting their relationship with nature and culture. In nature, as Puppet Master asks, the final stage to join the humanity is the sense of death and responsibility to giving births through sex. This is exactly the doctrine which ties women in the house and taking care of the family. This nature-related concept facilitates the binary relationship between male and females. On the other hand, the culture, including the biblical narration, the myths, the publications, construct the ideal image of the women to form the repression. As Kusanagi experiences the existentialism crisis in the elevator after leaving the Puppet Master ,she mumbles about the unreliable self-definition and the humane personalities. Therefore, there are no settled female personalities. Under the paternal control on the binary dichotomy, the society and the cultural environment force the female to form such personalities through the theatricality and acting as Judith Butler argues. Therefore, dissecting this myth of origin, cyborgs come from the factories and the laboratories, such as shown by the opening part of this film. Or, at least, such as Kusanagi and Bato, they have essential parts of bodies originating from industrial manufacture. Therefore, when bodies themselves containing this anonymous labor from random worker, the myth of goddess and one almighty creator disappears. Therefore, the bounding chains operated by nature and culture now could release the females.Just as Kusanagi in the film, she does not have families and children to take care of. Compared to the driver of the dumpcart who is controlled by Puppet Master, the cyborgs may not suffer such illusions as the theme of family doe does not exist in their minds, even Kusanagi appears to be a female through her breast. However, her hairs and face also represent a certain quality of masculinity and boyish feelings, blurring her identities as well.blurring her identities as well.blurring her identities as well.
In addition, another interesting way to destruct the paternal binary dichotomy between males and females in this film is enhancing the bi-directional gaze as the mirroring. This accords with the substitution mentioned by Haraway on p.13: Lacan replaces Freud, Replications Reproduction . When Kusanagi explains the reason bringing Togusa to this squad, she says that the cyborgs are all the same and homogenous. This confirms the theme of replication under the era of cyborgs, instead of the sexual reproductions listed by Freud. In the traditional definition of binary relationship between males and females, the nature emphasis of genitalia will describe man and woman as “yin” and “yang.” Each side is incomplete until combining with another side. It demonstrates a relationship of complementary. However,when the homogeneity rules the two sides of the gaze, there will be no more “male gaze” and “female gaze.” Two sides of the gaze are the same. Therefore, the person is looking towards “themselves.” This relationship is exemplified by the conversation between Puppet Master and Kusanagi. (Please forgive me writings assigning he/his/him to Puppet Master and she/her/hers to Kusanagi) When Kusanagi asks why he chooses to come and seek her, Puppet Master points to their similarity . They are the same. The following shots directly borrow from Ingmar Bergman's “Persona,” overlapping the profile and the frontal together. Similarly, after Kusanagi arrives Bato's house, she faces the mirror and gazes to herself. By citing from Lacan, I believe that Haraway tend to redress many feminism's misunderstandings on Lacan.The Lacanian gaze does not differentiate the binary relationship between subject and object. Instead, just as the self-gazing of cyborgs through mirror, it represents the inner collaboration or unity between observation and being-observed. It shows a gaze and a gaze-back . Therefore, this homogeneity destroys the binary relationship between males and females as well.
Furthermore, outside the discussion on the binary relationship, I want to share several interesting points in this film. The battle between the spider-chariot and Kusanagi takes place in an abandoned museum. It may reflect the concept of Lyotard's “death of grand narrative” introduced by the lecture, as all the representatives of the earth's transformation are immersed by the flood. When the enemy firing through a tree-shaped relief on the wall, it stops before reaching the top part, which writes “hominis,” meaning “human .” It visualizes the pending crisis of redefining human beings or the gender identities through the cyborgs.
View more about Ghost in the Shell reviews
