Analyzing Gender in Dune 

Analyzing Gender in Dune 

A Feminist and Gender Analysis of Dune:

Analyzing Gender:

Feminist Theory: Man and His Other:

In her pivotal work The Second Sex, published in 1949, French philosopher and writer Simone de Beauvoir was among the first to identify, analyze, and criticize what would become two important premises of Second Wave Feminism: the idea that men have made of women their ultimate “Other” and that femininity is a cultural construction rather than a biological fact. This notion that women play the passive Other to man’s assertive subjectivity is a theory expounded by earlier (male) philosophers beginning with Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (Tidd 16). Hegel argued that the conception of self is made possible through an awareness of the differentiation from all that is not-self: the subject’s form is defined through contrast to the other, the “alien being,” to which it is compared; it is able to affirm its existence through their mutual recognition of each other.13 He writes that simultaneous with the positive realization of “being-for-self” is the negative: one experiences a fearful response to the inherent threat presented by the Other, meaning that a situation of conflict is created whenever two self-awarenesses come into contact (Hegel 118). The conflict cannot be resolved by eliminating the other because this would mean destroying the possibility of recognizing oneself and thus destroying “the consciousness of itself as essential being” (Hegel 119). Instead, according to Hegel, the conflict must be defused through the development of a hierarchical relationship. His use of the terms “lord” as subject and “bondsman” as object reveals how fundamental this hierarchical arrangement is to his conception of the identification of self. For him, the drive toward conflict and domination is the sine qua non for the self-awareness of human beings.

concept of the Other being put to that purpose, quoting philosopher Julien Benda in a work he published only three years before her The Second Sex: “[woman] is determined and differentiated in relation to man, while he is not in relation to her; she is the inessential in front of the essential. He is the Subject; he is the Absolute. She is the Other” (qtd in Beauvoir 6). Benda’s assertion demonstrates that Hegel’s concept of the Other can and is used to justify and normalize the devaluing of women. For her part, Beauvoir agrees that “Otherness is a fundamental category of human thought,” pointing out that the duality of the Self and Other is a formulation that can be traced across cultural contexts reaching back to “the most ancient mythologies” (6). Yet, she argues that its ancient roots do nothing to recommend the application of this perspective to gender because, in its original form, it was a conception used to describe mythic archetypes, not sex division, and “it was not dependent upon any empirical facts” (6). Moreover, Hegel’s model falls short of accurately reflecting the asymmetrical, hierarchical division of the sexes because his “other consciousness, the other ego, sets up a reciprocal claim … individuals and groups are forced to realize the reciprocity of their relations,” whereas this reciprocity is lacking between men and women; man claims to be the sole essential subjectivity and denies the relativity of his position (Beauvoir 7). Therefore, Beauvoir finds men’s use of this argument for their superiority indefensible and women’s acquiescence to this view as troubling and in need of further interrogation. She questions society’s assumption that men’s rightful place is at the top of the hierarchy, which would give essential fuel to subsequent feminist thought.

The Man and Other model is a framework that allows for the invention and elaboration of a variety of ways in which woman’s position can be justified as being both separate from and subordinate to man’s. Two of the most significant of those is first, the argument that woman is more closely associated with nature and second, that woman is suited to dependent and subservient positions on the basis of her biologically determined character.

Feminist Theory: “Natural” Woman

In her pivotal work The Second Sex, published in 1949, French philosopher and writer Simone de Beauvoir was among the first to identify, analyze, and criticize what would become two important premises of Second Wave Feminism: the idea that men have made of women their ultimate “Other” and that femininity is a cultural construction rather than a biological fact. This notion that women play the passive Other to man’s assertive subjectivity is a theory expounded by earlier (male) philosophers beginning with Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (Tidd 16). Hegel argued that the conception of self is made possible through an awareness of the differentiation from all that is not-self: the subject’s form is defined through contrast to the other, the “alien being,” to which it is compared; it is able to affirm its existence through their mutual recognition of each other.13 He writes that simultaneous with the positive realization of “being-for-self” is the negative: one experiences a fearful response to the inherent threat presented by the Other, meaning that a situation of conflict is created whenever two self-awarenesses come into contact (Hegel 118). The conflict cannot be resolved by eliminating the other because this would mean destroying the possibility of recognizing oneself and thus destroying “the consciousness of itself as essential being” (Hegel 119). Instead, according to Hegel, the conflict must be defused through the development of a hierarchical relationship. His use of the terms “lord” as subject and “bondsman” as object reveals how fundamental this hierarchical arrangement is to his conception of the identification of self. For him, the drive toward conflict and domination is the sine qua non for the self-awareness of human beings.

concept of the Other being put to that purpose, quoting philosopher Julien Benda in a work he published only three years before her The Second Sex: “[woman] is determined and differentiated in relation to man, while he is not in relation to her; she is the inessential in front of the essential. He is the Subject; he is the Absolute. She is the Other” (qtd in Beauvoir 6). Benda’s assertion demonstrates that Hegel’s concept of the Other can and is used to justify and normalize the devaluing of women. For her part, Beauvoir agrees that “Otherness is a fundamental category of human thought,” pointing out that the duality of the Self and Other is a formulation that can be traced across cultural contexts reaching back to “the most ancient mythologies” (6). Yet, she argues that its ancient roots do nothing to recommend the application of this perspective to gender because, in its original form, it was a conception used to describe mythic archetypes, not sex division, and “it was not dependent upon any empirical facts” (6). Moreover, Hegel’s model falls short of accurately reflecting the asymmetrical, hierarchical division of the sexes because his “other consciousness, the other ego, sets up a reciprocal claim … individuals and groups are forced to realize the reciprocity of their relations,” whereas this reciprocity is lacking between men and women; man claims to be the sole essential subjectivity and denies the relativity of his position (Beauvoir 7). Therefore, Beauvoir finds men’s use of this argument for their superiority indefensible and women’s acquiescence to this view as troubling and in need of further interrogation. She questions society’s assumption that men’s rightful place is at the top of the hierarchy, which would give essential fuel to subsequent feminist  thought.

Feminist Theory: “Natural” Woman:

Feminists such as Sherry Ortner, Londa Schiebinger, Carolyn Merchant, and Nancy Stepan have made the case that a fundamental plank of the argument for defining the female as the inferior sex is the idea that “women belong to nature in ways that men do not,” which is a “well established Western conception” going all the way back to Plato (Schiebinger 16).14 In her article, “Is Female to Male as Nature Is to Culture?” Sherry Ortner surveys a broad range of cultural traditions and philosophies, seeking the reason for what she considers to be a universal condition that leads every culture to place a lower value on women. According to her research, the association of women with nature is the most important factor that leads to both their devaluation as individuals and their subordination in society (72). The former proceeds from the view that all human activity, or culture, is, in a general sense, an effort to transcend natural existence and assert control over nature; she writes that culture’s “sense of distinctiveness and superiority rests precisely on the ability to transform––to ‘socialize’ and ‘culturalize’––nature” (73). In being perceived as more closely affiliated with the natural world, women are in turn “seen as representing a lower order of being, as being less transcendental of nature than men are” (73). This view creates the conditions for men to be able to claim the project of culture as exclusively their own and exclude women as much as possible from public life.

Feminist Theory: Gender Performance:

Following Beauvoir, many Second Wave feminists have asserted that traditional conceptions of gender characteristics and aptitudes are artificially defined by unsubstantiated ideology and that femininity and masculinity are merely cultural constructs. Theorists such as Ernest Goffman, Judith Butler, Candace West and Don Zimmerman, and Raewyn Connell further develop this concept in arguing that gender  is constructed through performance. Writing in 1967, Goffman explains that the belief in essentialized gender characteristics arises from “a very deep belief in our society” that people’s outward presentation is an expression of a fixed, innate character and that gender is considered to be one of the most deeply seated and significant of character traits (74-5). Central to Goffman’s thesis is the assertion that there is no essential gender identity; rather than expressing their “nature,” people’s outward presentations instead indicate how they wish to be perceived according to their respective contexts of culturally constructed expectations and beliefs (75). He argues, “[w]hat the human nature of males and females really consists of, then, is a capacity to learn to provide and to read depictions of masculinity and femininity and a willingness to adhere to a schedule for presenting these pictures, and this capacity they have by virtue of being persons, not females or males” (76).17 By focusing on the individual’s complicity in replicating cultural norms, Goffman is able to reconcile the denial of the validity of biologically determined characteristics with the pervasiveness of seemingly natural and instinctive performances of traditional gender.

Cyborgs in Dune:

Cyborgs in Dune: Science and Technology in the Dune universe:

Doane writes that “[s]cience fiction, a genre specific to the era of rapid technological development, frequently envisages a new, revised body as a direct outcome of the advance of science” (182). Despite Dune’s grounding in the context of science fiction’s relatively technology-free sub-genre of the New Wave, Herbert similarly constructs the novel’s futurism through a visionary extension of its characters’ physical limitations. Although characters are not fitted with mechanical or electrical enhancements, they do nonetheless take advantage of the scientific developments of their society in order to extend their physical and mental capabilities beyond what is possible at this time. In other words, due to the unique way that science and technology are conceived in Dune, the physically and mentally enhanced characters, such as the Mentats, the Guild Navigators, and especially Jessica and the Bene Gesserit, can be considered early examples of mass media cyborgs. Strengthening the argument for reading them as such are the additional ways that Jessica and the Bene Gesserit display other traits common to this figure, such as hyperstereotypical femininity and the dual aspect of sexual appeal and threat, all of which work to support patriarchal notions about gender and the status quo. Additionally, the novel is thematically consistent with the cyborg genre due to its preoccupation with motherhood and its exploration of the impact of technology on issues of reproduction and lineage.

y weeding out those with so-called animal instincts, the Bene Gesserit believe that they improve the quality of their ranks. Essentially, they see themselves as the stewards of the human race and their methods as a constructive (if not Machiavellian) contribution to that project. Identifying a “need of a thread of continuity in human affairs,” they long ago decided that “there could be no such continuity without separating human stock from animal stock [inferior people]––for breeding purposes” (23). While the improvement of the human race may sound like a positive goal, the Bene Gesserit’s eugenic efforts are as ethically compromised as any other example of such endeavours throughout human history, the most obvious evidence being that those who “fail” the gom jabbar test are instantly killed.

Conclusion:

This thesis sought to demonstrate that a cyborgian reading of Frank Herbert’s Dune reveals additional significance in the novel’s portrayal of women because, while its adherence to patriarchal beliefs about gender norms is predictable and unsurprising, the substantial contribution of a fear of technology to its misogyny is an aspect thus far under explored. My analysis attempted to put the novel in the context of the United States of the 1960s with attention to the most relevant aspects of the era, such as men’s traditional, patriarchal attitudes toward women, their responses to emerging feminism, and their sentiment toward the increasing role of technology in everyday life. It began by examining the long-standing, yet problematic, belief in essentialized gender characteristics that continued to shape the opinions and assumptions held at the time. My research showed that patriarchy has long asserted that women have personalities and attributes that are determined within narrow parameters by their biological gender, making them unfit for any contributions to society outside of domestic and child-rearing work. Feminists have worked to expose and invalidate the biologically-based definitions of gender that legitimize man’s right to the top of the social hierarchy.

Table des matières

Introduction
Contex
Summary of Argument
Outline of the Chapters
Theoretical Framework
Review of the Literature
Methodology
Chapter One: A Feminist and Gender Analysis of Dune 
Part I: Analyzing Gender 
1.1 Feminist Theory: Man and His Other
1.2 Feminist Theory: “Natural” Woman
1.3 Feminist Theory: Gender Performance
1.4 Feminist Theory: Structures of Patriarchal Society
1.5 Feminist Theory: Women’s Complicity with Patriarchy as a Survival
Strategy
1.6 Feminist Theory: Conclusion
Part II: Analyzing Gender in Dune 
2.1 The Construction of the Masculine Norm in Dune
2.2 Gender in Dune: Nature vs. Nurture
2.3 Structures of Patriarchal Society in Dune
2.4 Survival Strategies for Women in Dune
2.5 Gender in Dune: Conclusion
Chapter Two: A Cyborgian Analysis of Dune
Part I: A Context for Cyborgs
1.1 Cyborgs in American Culture: Herbert’s Context
1.2 Cyborgs in American Culture: A History of Female Machines
1.3 Cyborgs in American Culture: The Twentieth Century Cyborg
Part II: Cyborgs in Dune
2.2 Cyborgs in Dune: Defining Criteria
2.3 Cyborgs in Dune: Figure of the Female Cyborg
2.4 Cyborgs in Dune: Themes in Cyborg Narratives
Part III: Monstrous Motherhood 
3.1 Monstrous Mothers and Disastrous Births
3.2 Monstrous Mothers and Disastrous Births in Dune
3.3 Cyborgs in Dune: Conclusion
Conclusion

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