Donna Haraway's A Cyborg Manifesto

by Rebecca Pohl

Haraway’s ‘A Cyborg Manifesto’ is a key postmodern text and is widely taught in many disciplines as one of the first texts to embrace technology from a leftist and feminist perspective using the metaphor of the cyborg to champion socialist, postmodern, and anti-identitarian politics. Until Haraway’s work, few feminists had turned to theorizing science and technology and thus her work quite literally changed the terms of the debate. This article continues to be seen as hugely influential in the field of feminism, particularly postmodern, materialist, and scientific strands. It is also a precursor to cyberfeminism and posthumanism and perhaps anticipates the development of digital humanities.

Genres: Feminism, Philosophy, Nonfiction, Theory, Academic, Essays, Technology

96 pages, Kindle Edition

First published September 3, 2018

Reviews

[Zach Brumaire · Rating 4 out of 5]

One review here describes Haraway's essay as "basically nonsense masquerading as philosophy." The inverse might come uncannily close to the truth: "A Cyborg Manifesto" theorizes under a mask of multiple and necessarily self-fracturing meanings, such that they resist, step outside of, under-gird and (re)settle the very project of making sense out of the text. This is a text aware of its own limits, and by dialectical relation to Itself and its Other--its Form and its Content--Haraway orientates those limits to a more precise exposition of its subject matter.

(Of course, this is not to say that "Cyborg" dons a mask which hides something "true" or "essential" about the author or her ideas underneath: this is a persona which rests on nothing but itself, a floating. The obscure-weary would do well not to tread here, and certainly positivists will find nothing but cause for offense.)

Thus it is no accident Haraway's work aims at precisely the kind of theory requisite for critiquing the faux-simplicity and anxious recursions which are the mark of the philosophies of the entrenched statuses quo, for de-naturalizing the anti-material normalizations which close their eyes to all ambiguity and see not even their own lids, and for revolting against the absurd contradictions which mark the ideological and material modes under which of late we have so long been laboring.

[Maya]

‘Though both are bound in a spiral dance, I would rather be a cyborg than a goddess.’

[benson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Had to read this for a class and it changed my outlook on writing, art, gender and feminism. The ideas and arguments in this shifted my perspective of the world (real). Very hard to digest but so worth it.

[Alec · Rating 1 out of 5]

Basically nonsense masquerading as philosophy.

[Baba Yaga · Rating 5 out of 5]

so many interesting ideas about how technology challenges boundaries, language, and society (insert obligatory joker). she sees the way boundaries are disintegrating as an opportunity for revolution, specifically for women to take advantage of

she goes in depth picking at old feminist mythologies and why they fail but she is using a feminist framework here anyway, just with a lot of caveats and disclaimers. i found the political jargon to be the most annoying shit ever but this is literally a political manifesto so its definitely one of those "i dont know what i expected" moments. to me i find it to be limiting instead of subversive and the discourse starts to feel thin, like theres so many words saying so little. just very idealistic without feeling really challenging in 2025 but idk maybe i just didnt like her prose cuz i do vibe with the sentiment that we should play😛 be ironic 🙄 get our pussies up 😛 embrace change 😍 and break definitions 😫

(maybe my issue is the manifesto is like down with definitions and boundaries while asserting those via a feminist ie binary framework? which she does address but like she does it anyway so idk man like you cant take the political impositions of identity out of the political manifesto)

that being said everything she said had the sauce and this is defo required reading esp for people still living with their head up their ass. like make your dad read this. i just feel like its a little out of date if youre wired though like postgender posthuman type beat its a little like okaayyyyyyy i get it already cyborg revolution kumbaya. but honestly like cyborg revolution kumbaya 🙏 baudrillard kind of said the same shit but he was sexual about it
like hes not running for office. like harraway is like 😎🥳😜 and bauds like 🤫🤤😏 cyborg sisters not twins

anyway so yeah

[phoebe · Rating 4 out of 5]

“cyborg writing is about the power to survive, not on the basis of original innocence, but on the basis of seizing the tools to mark the world that marked them as other.”
my brain hurts from trying to grasp basically any understanding of this essay but i am stronger for it.

[Sophia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read as part of my undergrad degree. I found it very strange but made me think about the future of our relationship with technology. Will our reliance on technology evolve into a merging with it?

[Anna Kozera · Rating 4 out of 5]

Feel a bit outdated with last year changes in advancing technology and it's negative effects

[☾⋆｡ A °✩.⟡ · Rating 2 out of 5]

Had incredibly little of value in it and what it did have it kept repeating? Literally identical phrases would come up in each chapter? I don't know if they only expected people to single chapters? but I wish I had it would have saved time.
By far the most helpful bit is the dictionary at the end and even then you can just google most of it

[Ash Reads Books · Rating 3 out of 5]

Haraway makes some compelling points, but each is veiled behind a curtain of pseudo-literary language. There is so much going on here and I genuinely cannot tell if it's actually too much for one essay or if Haraway just has poor organizational skills.

[Simone · Rating 5 out of 5]

one of the foundational texts of all i do and study and make art about. profoundly flawed but must be taken within the context of its time and as the precursor to countless excellent works and ideations. i <3 haraway I've read this probably a dozen times and will probably a dozen more

[Lana]

pretty freaking lit

[Basia · Rating 4 out of 5]

“I would rather be a cyborg than a goddess.” pg. 68

Donna Haraway's "A Cyborg Manifesto" offers a challenging yet rewarding examination of ideologies through the lens of the "cyborg."

The essay is a challenging read due to Haraway's abundant use of jargon. The "Informatics of Domination" section, in particular, can be perplexing, leaving me very lost in a sea of complex terminology. Haraway's penchant for listing ideological concepts, a practice that, rather than enhancing clarity, caused my eyes to glaze over. While she attempts to explain the context of certain terms, the continuous listing often contributes little to comprehension. For me, the potential effectiveness of her writing would improve if the language were more colloquial or, conversely, if the structure built up to complex terms. A more accessible writing style might mitigate the essay's density, but I acknowledge that I am not the most familiar with feminist philosophical theory.

A highlight of the essay is the section addressing the fallacies of feminism and Marxist/social feminism. Haraway adeptly dissects these ideologies centering around the modern reconstruction of ideologies through the concept of the "cyborg." Reading this in 2023, the relevance of discussing humanity's place amidst new technologies is still a hot topic underscoring the viability of Haraway's concepts.

“The machine is us, our processes, an aspect of our embodiment. We can be responsible for machines; they do not dominate or threaten us. We are responsible for boundaries; we are they.” pg. 65

Additionally, The section titled "Cyborgs: A Myth of Political Identity" stands out as the heart of the text. Here, Haraway skillfully analyzes the term "women of color" and its implications for cyborg feminists. This section provides a substantive exploration of the essay's core ideas.

Overall, I benefited from thinking on the sections I did grasp but I will not remember all aspects of the concepts without further personal research or discussion on these topics.

[Harry Palacio · Rating 5 out of 5]

A commentary on Donna Haraway's 'A Cyborg Manifesto: Science, Technology, and Socialialist-Feminism in the Late Twentieth Century, Rebecca Pohl goes on to describe how the seminal work that influenced intersectionality, the transgender movement, artists, and a trove of sci-fi writers (as well as being informed by them) had a catalyst like effect on these movements. The manifesto informs us on how we are all cybrobian in respect to our immunology (vaccines), modes of transportation, education, implementation of writing (hieroglyphs), (now in present day we use apps and computers that serve like phantom limbs to our bodies), etc. The book is a luminous journey into the mind of Haraway and her thesis that gave her such precedent in academia. I definitely have to recommend this book, and her actual essay while this is a companion essay to the former.

[Seyhan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Meet the great feminists Donna Haraway‘s famous work.Here is a one line summary of the famous manifesto:
„ I would rather be a cyborg than a goddess „😂😂 On my way to lunch today, at the Max Planck Library I stumbled upon this ingenious little book by Haraway and finished it before my lunch.
It is the analysis of the original text of Cyborg Manifesto, but gives alot of insight about the original text . I can‘t believe she managed to publish such provokative work in 1985. Donna Haraway‘s manifesto is one of the first work to develop leftist, feminist approach to technology and science by using the metaphorical myth which is a cyborg, in her words „ the creature of social reality„. My task is now to read the original text.

[Maksim Prokhorov · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very interesting. I will need to read it a couple more times as much of the language was field specific and difficult to approach. But the overall argument is clear and seems very relevant to the now and the future.

[Eduardo Norte · Rating 5 out of 5]

Bastante útil si, como yo, no entendiste una mierda de lo que Haraway quería decir.

[Hal Lowen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Definitely interesting, definitely useful, definitely not always the easiest to follow. Lots of rereading, but it's fairly short so it's easy to read back over!

[Georgia Taylor]

confusion.

[Owen · Rating 2 out of 5]

Nice and short, but feels very pointless. Could have been five pages and contained all the important information.

[MaskedMinty · Rating 2 out of 5]

I feel like the author has deliberately made the book dense and hard to digest, and she keeps repeating herself over and over again. Her ideas didn't make much sense to me unfortunately

[Can Urla · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very informative, helped me to understand many aspects

[Lauren · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the hardest academic essays I've read. Really interesting and insightful--I see it contributing to my research heavily. I read most texts now through a cyborg lens.

[Melissa]

Very accessible text, great companion to Harraway's manifesto and points in directions to do further reading

[ethan · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Though both are bound in the spiral dance, I would rather be a cyborg than a goddess" -Donna Haraway

[Katelyn · Rating 1 out of 5]

might be the most annoying book I have ever read in my life. wish I could rate it 0 stars