[Commlist] New Book: Female Robots and AI in Science Fiction Cinema

A new Palgrave release: /Female Robots and AI in Science Fiction Cinema: 
The Fabular Femininity of Gynoids 
<https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-031-94917-3> /by Rebecca 
L. Jones.

The book provides an examination of the representation of 
female-presenting AI and robots in US and UK live-action films. It 
covers 74 years, 80 films, and 135 characters.

The book is open for review <https://www.springer.com/gp/reviewers>, and 
you can also contact (bookreview /at/ springer.com) 
<mailto:(bookreview /at/ springer.com)> directly about getting a review copy.


About this book

This book is the first comprehensive overview of the history of 
female-presenting AI and robots in US and UK live-action, science 
fiction films from 1949 to 2023. It offers an original taxonomy that 
aids in the examination of 80 films and over 135 characters’ 
representations, starting with The Perfect Woman (1949) and ending with 
Robots (2023). Using its representational taxonomy, this book analyses 
the evolution of these depictions, showing the continuations, revisions, 
and shifts in the depiction of female-presenting AI and robots from 
objectified, eroticised, subordinated things to being autonomous moral 
agents who assert their right to equality and refuse their abusive, 
typically sexual, use. This book shows how these fictional, gendered 
constructions are products of a heterosexual, cisgender, male fantasy of 
an idealised, subordinated form of femininity. These artificial 
characters, along with their real-world counterparts, highlight a desire 
for a subordinated femininity, but also show how that subordination is a 
social construction often reinforced and countered in onscreen 
depictions. By examining the trends within its asserted Galatea, 
Girlfriend, Mother, and Deadly Seductress types, this book presents an 
exploration of what our female-presenting artificial creations could be, 
while addressing their contemporary, and our current, AI technologies, 
and how science fiction is influencing real life, while our reality 
seeks to mirror science fiction.


Table of contents (6 chapters)


Gynoids and Fabular Femininity

The Perfect (Artificial) Woman

Artificial Girlfriends

Chosen (Artificial) Motherhood

Sexy Killing Machines

Evolving Fables and Future Femininities
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