Hmmmmmmm... can't be sure if I'm repulsed ot turned on.

waiting for that guy to say how sick we are because as geeks we are not really turned on by sex and technology, but as people we are turned on by the naked woman appearing to have entrails. he'd be wrong btw.

Two questions:

1) So which one of you sick bastards was searching for "free body torture mutilation porn" today?

2) Why did that search refer you to my site (which lacks free - a paid-for mutilation porn)?

I don't keep my pr0n online!!!

Who wants to bet that there's topless torso with exposed spinal cord and dangling wires robo-porn out there already? Perhaps a magazine is in order.

I usually hate all Star Trek movies--but First Contact had not just the Borg, but Alicia Krige as the Borg Queen--so sublime...
resistance was futile.

It's impossible for me *not* to take a look at these images from the viewpoint of feminist criticism, and say that they can be seen as a deeply sick urge to mutilate women. With the possible exception of the Venus.

Really. Ick.

@JoshJasper: I actually think the Venus one is far worse, since it's an example of a woman who actually was mutilated. The statue was destroyed by vandals. The other images are of women who aren't whole who then become whole and kick ass. I see a big difference between a taken-apart woman who becomes whole, versus a whole woman who is taken apart.

@Annalee: I thought that there was some debate as to how the Venus de Milo lost her arms.

Limbs (along with noses) of statues are fairly likely things to get knocked off in the wear-and-tear of two thousand years.

@Annalee: Using that theory, however, the Borg Queen and Taminatrix are, arguably, similarly misogynistic. Both images are of a woman divorced from her own body - as if the natural female form was impotent and needed enhancement to be equal. This is a recurring theme, all the way through the clips from the new Bionic Woman. The women are not put together as being female, but instead, as female with typically sci-fi male attributes.

I think that the reason that this kind of quasi-pornography appeals to some men is that it shows a woman at her most vulnerable and stands for the idea that only the core of the female form - which has the genitalia - is of value. This is only my own personal, unqualified opinion.

The Borg Queen merits its own discussion because included with the torso is a phallic spinal column which penetrates her artificial female body.

I have to say I never thought of any of these as sexual images. Which maybe leads to the other feminist critique.

That in order to depict women as powerful one removes their sexual/reproductive abilities.

@OMG! Ponies!: Which interacts interestingly with this idea which I didn't see when I commented.

@92BuickLeSabre: It's an interesting point, I think largely because the feminine aspect of sex is considered the penetrated and vulnerable aspect. In modern, western culture (and, really, in many, many cultures around the world) being the female in a sexual relationship is being weak.

Men, therefore, can be powerful by having their sexual features enhanced; women, in order to be powerful, have to downplay their sexuality.

I think this is one of the reasons why "empowering women" so often equals "using sexuality as a weapon."

a lot of freudian mumbo-jumbo here. if you subscribe to that, everyone wants to have sex with their mother. personally, i find it sexy for a few reason
1) the robot could overpower me and make me her sex slave
2) robots would not need to be taught how to do sex right, they would just know from programming
3) boobies...sadly i am a leg and ass man, so that is a downfall.
sorry, but intestines dangling from a dismembered body are not a turn on for me. i may however have sex with an iphone because i happen to love smooth sexy technology.

@EMoShunz: And that is why no one asks to borrow your phone.

@braak: It was the one thing that made the Ally McBeal/Sex in the City "feminism" arguable (but please, I am not the one arguing it.)

Successful business/political/etc. women were portrayed as largely asexual creatures by men and social forces. These representations are the extreme version of that portrayal.

So, as you say, the "new feminism" was said to incorporate using one's sexuality freely. Unfortunately "using" one's sexuality and taking control of sexuality can turn out to be slightly different concepts. (And of course, one can agree with the concept without believing for one second that either one or both of the above examples actually captured the idea.)

@OMG! Ponies!: lol, glad someone isn't taking things too seriously

@92BuickLeSabre: It's interesting, and also complicated. But then, I have huge problems with a lot of the pieces of modern culture that are looked on as being feminist--including things like Buffy the Vampire Slayer; that people look on it as being empowering to women is a phenomenon that continues to fascinate me.

Usually, I try to avoid getting into arguments about whether stuff like dismembered robot chicks are misogynist or not is because the issue is so tangled and deeply neurotic that there seems to be no way to sort it out.

That it's kind of lame and derivative, however, I will assert confidently.

@braak: I started thinking the same thing as I was half-way through my comment, but I had already started, so I figured I'd commit to finishing it.

And yes, lame and derivative, I think we can all agree on that.

I know there is some correlation with the movie, "Crash" (which Glau's photo reminded me of), but the caffeine hasn't kicked in yet.

A photographer friend of mine commented that if you see a photographer who consistently "cuts" off arms & legs of women in his photos, he is subconsciously repressing or binding them.

I don't find the images remotely sexy.

That's what the ROBOTS WANT you to think!
Don't be mistaken, the evil robots MUST BE STOPPED.

@strider_mt2k: I'm still not worried about this stuff being anti-feminist, because what woman doesn't want to stick her head onto a body that gives her incredible physical power? As a great philosopher once said, I'd rather be a cyborg than a goddess!

@Annalee: She would then be like some kind of Adrienne Barbeaubot, and have rocket-launcher boobs.

@Annalee: I'd probably opt for upgrades too, but that's different! :D

@Annalee: Then again, once you reach the point where consciousness is easily transferable across the organic/inorganic barrier, gender becomes a completely obsolete concept, anyway.

Heh. This reminds me of the boyfriend's artwork. [www.fharper.com]

As with much in sci-fi, Doctor Who got there too. Check out this Japanese cover to the third Doctor debut story 'Spearhead from Space', all the way from 1980.

[www.personal.leeds.ac.uk]

@annalee: The vandals who trashed Venus de Milo were very likely showing their contempt for an entire culture, not just for women.

That show is on right now, the guy playing Ahnold's part looks like Chuck Schumer (small TV & antenna version)!