From Maria to Siri: Cinematic Female Robots and the Reproduction of Gender in Artificial Intelligence

Abstract

The study considers the depiction of artificial women in film history and the way that depiction relates to modern artificial intelligence from a feminist point of view. Research analyzes how artificial female depictions repeat gender stereotypes. However, the primary focus of the study is the analysis carried out through cinematic narratives and visual representations, and technological applications are considered as a supporting context to understand the cultural framework created by these filmic discourses. This repetition occurs in works ranging from Maria in the 1927 movie “Metropolis” to current voice-controlled digital helpers like Siri and Alexa. The concept of “digital authority” gives the study its structure. Through it, we can comprehend how technological authority becomes established plus kept from a gendered view. Qualitative content analysis is used in the research methodology. It looks at artificial female depictions in certain films and current artificial intelligence. This analysis is based on feminist film theory and technoscience points of view. General traits in cinematic artificial female figures are that they show traditional female roles, such as serving, obeying, as well as emotional support. These representation patterns moved to current technologies, so voice-controlled digital helpers often use female voices plus are equipped with feminine personality traits. The study places importance on the idea that technological advances commonly strengthen current gender norms and that more inclusive and fair methods must be adopted in the design of artificial intelligence systems. For the purpose of overcoming gender inequalities in technology production, this research highlights the importance of putting feminist perspectives into artificial intelligence design processes.

Keywords

• Gendered AI
• Digital Femininity
• Fembots

Maria'dan Siri'ye: Sinematik Kadın Robotlar ve Yapay Zekada Toplumsal Cinsiyetin Yeniden Üretimi

Öz

Bu çalışma, sinemada yapay kadın figürlerinin tarihsel temsilini ve bu temsillerin modern yapay zekâ teknolojilerindeki yansımalarını feminist bir bakış açısıyla incelemektedir. Araştırma, 1927 tarihli “Metropolis” filmindeki Maria'dan günümüzün sesli dijital asistanları Siri ve Alexa'ya kadar uzanan süreçte, yapay kadın temsillerinin toplumsal cinsiyet kalıplarını nasıl yeniden ürettiğini analiz etmektedir. Bununla birlikte, çalışmanın temel odak noktası sinematik anlatılar ve görsel temsiller üzerinden gerçekleştirilecek olup, teknolojik uygulamalar bu filmsel söylemlerin yarattığı kültürel çerçeveyi anlamak için destekleyici bir bağlam olarak ele alınmaktadır. Çalışmanın teorik çerçevesini oluşturan “dijital otorite” kavramı, teknolojik otoritenin toplumsal cinsiyet perspektifinden nasıl kurulduğunu ve sürdürüldüğünü anlamak için kullanılmıştır. Araştırma metodolojisi, feminist film teorisi ve teknobilim perspektiflerine dayanarak, seçili filmlerdeki yapay kadın temsillerinin ve güncel yapay zekâ teknolojilerinin nitel içerik analizini içermektedir. Bulgular, sinematik yapay kadın figürlerinin genellikle hizmet etme, itaat etme ve duygusal destek sağlama gibi geleneksel kadın rollerini yansıtacak şekilde tasarlandığını göstermektedir. Bu temsil kalıplarının, sesli dijital asistanların çoğunlukla kadın sesi kullanımı ve kadınsı kişilik özellikleriyle donatılması şeklinde günümüz teknolojilerine taşındığı tespit edilmiştir. Çalışma, teknolojik yeniliklerin mevcut toplumsal cinsiyet normlarını pekiştirme eğiliminde olduğunu ve yapay zekâ sistemlerinin tasarımında daha kapsayıcı ve eşitlikçi yaklaşımların benimsenmesi gerektiğini vurgulamaktadır. Araştırma, teknoloji üretiminde toplumsal cinsiyet eşitsizliklerinin üstesinden gelinmesi için, feminist perspektifin yapay zekâ tasarım süreçlerine dahil edilmesinin önemini ortaya koymaktadır.

Anahtar Kelimeler

• Yapay Zekâda Cinsiyet
• Dijital Kadınlık
• Kadın Robotlar

References

1. Adams, C., & Thompson, T. L. (2016). Researching a posthuman world: Interviews with digital objects. Palgrave Macmillan UK.
2. Anderson, J. E. (2020). Gender and environment in science fiction B. Barclay & C. Tidwell (Eds.). Lexington Books.
3. Bergen, H. (2016). ‘I'd blush if i could': Digital assistants, disembodied cyborgs and the problem of gender. Word & Text: A Journal of Literary Studies & Linguistics, 95-113. Complementary Index.
4. Brooker, W. (2006). The Blade Runner experience: The legacy of a science fiction classic. Columbia University Press.
5. Broussard, M. (2018). Artificial unintelligence: How computers misunderstand the world. MIT Press.
6. Bukatman, S. (2017). Blade Runner. British Film Institute.
7. Burden, D., & Savin-Baden, M. (2019). Virtual humans: Today and tomorrow. CRC Press.
8. Carpenter, J. (2024). The naked android: Synthetic socialness and the human gaze. Taylor & Francis.

9. Cave, S., Dihal, K., & Dillon, S. (2020). AI narratives: A history of imaginative thinking about intelligent machines. Oxford University Press.
10. Chesher, C. (2017). Mechanology, mindstorms, and the genesis of robots. S. J. Thompson (Ed.), Androids, cyborgs, and robots in contemporary culture and society (120-137). IGI Global.
11. Cockburn, C., & Ormrod, S. (1993). Gender and technology in the making. SAGE Publications.
12. Cohan, S. (2019). Hollywood by hollywood: The backstudio picture and the mystique of making movies. Oxford University Press.
13. Costa, P., & Ribas, L. (2019). AI becomes her: Discussing gender and artificial intelligence. Technoetic Arts, 17(1), 171-193.
14. DiGioia, A. (2021). Gender and parenting in the worlds of alien and Blade Runner: A feminist analysis. Emerald Publishing Limited.
15. Dmitruk, N. (2017). Are you really a child?: Androids and cyborgs in Japanese comics and animations. Androids, cyborgs, and robots in contemporary culture and society (65-95). IGI Global, Engineering Science Reference.
16. Ermakov, A., & O'Brien, G. (2023). “A curious machine”: Wesleyan reflections on the posthuman future. Wipf and Stock Publishers.
17. Eubanks, V. (2018). Automating inequality: How high-tech tools profile, police, and punish the poor. St. Martin's Publishing Group.
18. Frana, P. L., & Klein, M. J. (2021). Encyclopedia of artificial intelligence: The past, present, and future of AI. Bloomsbury Publishing.
19. Franzoni, V. (2023). Gender differences and bias in artificial intelligence. Gender in AI and robotics: The gender challenges from an interdisciplinary perspective (27-43). Springer International Publishing.
20. Gentile, K. J. (2020). Sexing the look in popular visual culture. Cambridge Scholars.
21. Greven, D. (2020). The bionic woman and feminist ethics: An analysis of the 1970s television series. McFarland, Incorporated, Publishers.
22. Hawkins, S. (2020). Deleuze and the gynesis of horror: From monstrous births to the birth of the monster. Bloomsbury Publishing.
23. Hicks, M. (2018). Programmed inequality: How Britain discarded women technologists and lost its edge in computing. MIT Press.
24. Hills, M. (2011). Blade Runner. Columbia University Press.
25. Hogue, A. (2018). Positing the robotic self: From fichte to ex machina. G. Trop & L. Weatherby (Eds.), Posthumanism in the age of humanism: Mind, matter, and the life sciences after Kant (223-243). Bloomsbury Publishing.
26. Huckvale, D. (2024). Artificial intelligence in the movies: A history. McFarland, Incorporated, Publishers.
27. Huyssen, A. (1982). The vamp and the machine: Technology and sexuality in Fritz Lang's Metropolis. New German Critique, No.24/25(Special Double Issue on New German Cinema), 221-237.
28. Kakoudaki, D. (2014). Anatomy of a robot: Literature, cinema, and the cultural work of artificial people. Rutgers University Press.
29. Kang, M. (2005). Building the sex machine: The subversive potential of the female robot. Intertexts 9, 9(1), 5-22.
30. Kang, M. (2010). Sexing the female robot. Sexing the look in popular visual culture (143-163). Cambridge Scholars.
31. Kerman, J. (1991). Retrofitting Blade Runner: Issues in Ridley Scott's Blade Runner and Philip K. Dick's do androids dream of electric sheep?. Bowling Green State University Popular Press.
32. Klein, W. E.J. (2017). Robots and free software. M. I. Aldinhas Ferreira, J. Silva Sequeira, M. O. Tokhi, E. E. Kadar & G. S. Virk (Eds.), A World with Robots: International Conference on Robot Ethics: ICRE 2015 (63-77). Springer International Publishing.
33. Lee, J. (2017). Sex robots: The future of desire. Springer International Publishing.
34. Loh, J. (2023). Are dating apps and sex robots feminist technologies? A critical posthumanist alternative. Gender in AI and robotics: The gender challenges from an interdisciplinary perspective (93–106). Springer International Publishing.
35. Luokkala, B. B. (2019). Exploring science through science fiction. Springer International Publishing.
36. Marotta, M. A., Palumbo, D. E., & Sullivan III, C.W. (2020). Women's space: Essays on female characters in the 21st century science fiction western. McFarland, Incorporated, Publishers.
37. McLeod, K. (2020). Driving identities: At the intersection of popular music and automotive culture. Taylor & Francis.
38. Milner, A. (2005). Literature, culture and society. Routledge.
39. Muir, J. K. (2012). Horror films of the 1970s. McFarland, Incorporated, Publishers.
40. Murphy, P. (2024). AI in the movies. Edinburgh University Press.
41. Nagl-Docekal, H., &Zacharasiewicz, W. (2022). Artificial intelligence and human enhancement: Affirmative and critical approaches in the humanities. De Gruyter.
42. Noble, S. U. (2018). Algorithms of oppression: How search engines reinforce racism. NYU Press.
43. O'Meara, J. (2022). Women's voices in digital media: The sonic screen from film to memes. University of Texas Press.
44. Ovacık, B. (2025). Digital authority and the reproduction of gender inequality: Addressing gender bias in voice assistant development. Journal of AI, 9(1), 13-31.
45. Redmond, S., & Marvell, L. (2015). Endangering science fiction film. Taylor & Francis.
46. Riccio, T. (2024). Sophia robot: Post human being. Routledge.
47. Richardson, K. (2015). An anthropology of robots and AI: Annihilation anxiety and machines. Taylor & Francis.
48. Robertson, J. (2018). Robo sapiens Japanicus: Robots, gender, family, and the Japanese nation. University of California Press.
49. Schiebinger, L. (2018). Gendered innovation in health and medicine. Advances in Experimental Medicine and Biology, 643–654. 10.1007/978-3-319-77932-4_39
50. Shah, H. (2023). Not born of woman: Gendered robots. Gender in AI and robotics: The gender challenges from an interdisciplinary perspective (107–127). Springer International Publishing.
51. Shanahan, T., & Smart, P. (2019). Blade Runner 2049: A philosophical exploration. Taylor & Francis.
52. Short, S. (2004). Cyborg cinema and contemporary subjectivity. Palgrave Macmillan UK.
53. Søraa, R. A. (2017). Mecha-media: How are androids, cyborgs, and robots presented and received through the media? S. J. Thompson (Ed.), Androids, cyborgs, and robots in contemporary culture and society (96-120). IGI Global.
54. Trovato, G., & Lucho, C. (2018). The influence of body proportions on perceived gender of robots in Latin America. D. Levy (Ed.), Love and Sex with Robots: Third International Conference, Revised Selected Papers (158-169). Springer International Publishing.
55. Turkle, S. (2015). Reclaiming conversation: The power of talk in a digital age. Penguin Publishing Group.
56. Vint, S., & Buran, S. (2022). Technologies of feminist speculative fiction: Gender, artificial life, and the politics of reproduction. Springer International Publishing.
57. Wajcman, J. (2010). Feminist theories of technology. Cambridge Journal of Economics, 34(1), 143-152.
58. Wajcman, J. (2013). TechnoFeminism. Polity Press.
59. West, M., Kraut, R., & Ei, C. H. (2019). I'd blush if I could: closing gender divides in digital skills through education. UNESCO. https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000367416
60. Wosk, J. (2001). Women and the machine: Representations from the spinning wheel to the electronic age. Johns Hopkins University Press.
61. Wosk, J. (2015). My fair ladies: Female robots, androids, and other artificial eves. Rutgers University Press.
62. Wosk, J. (2024). Artificial women: Sex dolls, robot caregivers, and more facsimile females. Indiana University Press.
63. Yaszek, L., Fritzsche, S., Omry, K., & Pearson, W. G. (2023). The Routledge companion to gender and science fiction. Taylor & Francis.
64. Yeates, R. (2021). American cities in post-apocalyptic science fiction. UCL Press.