Gender imaginaries in sci-fi and real-life AI and the ongoing relevance of second-wave feminism

This paper argues that situated imaginaries (Yuval-Davis and Stoetzler 2002) of gender roles in science fiction are instrumental to understanding stereotypes in the design and use of real-life technology–and ultimately, provide insight into the continuity and change of gender norms in society. Through the lens of situated imaginaries, the paper revisits the iconic 1975 dystopian film The Stepford Wives and its 2004 remake, both portraying subservient fembots, and argues that the films thematize two issues central to second-wave feminism: the confinement of women to domestic service roles and male control over female bodies. Although there is a shift in the situated imaginaries of robots in the remake, reflecting developments in gender norms over time, crucial similarities between the two films reveal that stereotypical gendering persists. This persistence is also visible in today´s real-life virtual assistants and conversational AIs, which reproduce many of the same mechanisms seen in the gendering of robots in the films, though in slightly different ways. The paper examines Replika, a lesser-known AI, alongside well-known ones including Siri and Alexa. The paper concludes that the ongoing circulation of the subservient fembot trope in culture shows that many of second-wave feminism challenges remain more unresolved than commonly assumed