gynoid

Gynoid (from Greek gyne - woman) is a term used to describe a robot designed to look like a human female, as compared to an android modeled after a male. The term is not common, however, with "android" often being used to refer to both "genders" of robot. The portmanteaus "fembot" (female robot) and "feminoid" (female android) have also been used sparingly. Gynoid alone was first used in the writings of British sci-fi author Gwyneth Jones and later by Richard Calder.

Early concepts

Historically, stories surrounding artificial females can be categorised into three groups:

A passive doll, who becomes a mirror of male fantasy and says little
A household companion, practical and capable of performing menial tasks
A woman endowed with spirit, intelligence and emotion

From 600 BC onwards legends of talking bronze and clay statues coming to life have been a regular occurrence in the works of classical authors such as: Homer, Plato, Pindar, Tacitus, and Pliny. In Book 18 of the Iliad, Hephaestus the god of all mechanical arts, was assisted by two moving female statues made from gold - "living young damsels, filled with minds and wisdoms". Another legend has Hephaestus being commanded by Zeus to create the first woman, Pandora, from out of clay. The myth of Pygmalion king of Cyprus, tells of a lonely man who sculpted his ideal woman from ivory, Galatea, and then promptly fell in love with her after the goddess Aphrodite brings her to life. The idea of loving an artificial creation was recounted in modern times by Henry Higgins and Eliza Dolittle in George Bernard Shaw's play Pygmalion (1916) originally staged with marionettes, and in the musical My Fair Lady (1956). Variations on this recurrent theme appear in Ernst Hoffman's gothic short story Der Sandman (1817) in which the love object is the automaton Olympia, in Leo Delibes' ballet Coppelia (1870) where it is the eponymous dancing doll, and in countless recent science fiction films and novels. Since the Renaissance, inventors began considering machines for more realistic yet aesthetic purposes. In 1540, Italian inventor Gianello Torriano of Cremona made automata for the amusement of Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor, including a life-sized girl plucking a lute. The girl could walk in straight lines or circles and tilt her head. It still exists and now resides in the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna. During the 1640s, the French philosopher Ren Descartes is reputed to have travelled with an artificial female companion called Francine, named after his daughter. Austrian Friedrich von Knauss developed a "writing doll" in 1760 capable of writing up to 107 words through dictation. By 1773, the Jaquet-Droz brothers in France had developed a series of life-like mechanical puppets which included a sixteen year old female musician. The musician played a piano with fingers on the appropriate keys and was designed to simulate breathing as well as turn her head sideways and bow at the end of each performance. Mechanist Les Maillardet is credited in inspiring the invention of the "The Philadelphia Doll" (1812) which was capable of writing in English and French and drew landscapes. In 1823, Johann Nepomuk Maelzel had manufactured a doll that could state "Ma-ma" and "Pa-pa". By 1891, Thomas Edison developed this work further by patenting his Talking Doll, utilising a wax cylinder that recited "Mary Had a Little Lamb", based on Maelzel's earlier idea. Initially to advertise his phonograph, more than 500 were produced. The industrial revolution and in particular since World War II, the development of cybernetics and the concept of artificial intelligence led to more complex ideas of robots and androids. Whereas robots in the past have performed routine and mundane tasks, a fully independent gynoid has yet to be developed. To date gynoids exist only in science fiction, although increasingly mechanized versions of the Real Doll (2004) product by Abyss Creations are coming closer. As the human form is not the most practical morphology for robotic devices, the development of gynoids will depend largely upon the commercial drive of the consumer.

List of fictional gynoids

Alicia, in "The Lonely" an episode from The Outer Limits (1959).
The Alienator, from Alienator (1989).
Andra, from (1999).
Andrea, in "What are Little Girls Made Of?" an episode from (1966).
Andromeda from A for Andromeda (1961) and The Andromeda Breakthrough (1962).
Andromedan gynoids, in "I, Mudd" an episode from (1967).
Ashley, from Cybergirl (2001 - )
Assorted gynoids, from Robot Stories (2003).
ANI from Mercy Point (1998 - 1999).
April and Buffybot from Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1997 - 2003).
Annalee Call from (1997).
Betty, in "Directly from My Heart to You" an episode from Twisted Tales (1996).
replicant Samantha Carter, from Stargate SG-1 (2004).
Cassandra from Android (1983).
Cherry 2000 from Cherry 2000 (1987).
Chi from Chobits (2002)
Disposable women, from an early issue of Mad Magazine/
Eve VIII, from Eve of Destruction (1991).
Eve Edison from Mann & Machine (1992).
Fem bots from Austin Powers
Four pleasure gynoids in Cyberzone (1995).
Freya from Chobits
Galatea from Bicentennial Man (1999).
Galaxina from Galaxina (1980).
Guri, assistant to Prince Xizor in Shadows of the Empire from the Star Wars Expanded Universe.
Hadaly from Viller's de L'Isle Adam's novel L'Eve future (1879).
Helen O'Loy from Lester del Rey's novel Helen O'Loy (1938).
Jessica from Screamers (1995).
KAY-Em 14, from Jason X (2001).
Lal, a daughter built by Data, in the Star Trek episode, "The Offspring" as well as Data's mother, Dr. Juliana O'Donnell. Both are referred to as androids.
Lana and Greta, from Grid Runners (aka Virtual Combat) (1994).
Lisa from Weird Science (1985).
Losira replicants, in "That Which Survives" an episode from (1969).
The robot "Maria" (also referred to as Futura or Hel) in Metropolis, or the mysterious girl in its Japanese remake.
Dee Model from Ken MacLeod's The Stone Canal, referred to as gynoid within the book.
Mahoro from Mahoromatic
Mona Lisa, in "Mona Lisa" an episode from The Outer Limits (2003).
Niya, from Humanoid Woman (1981).
Olga, from The Perfect Woman (1949).
Rachael Tyrell, Pris, and Zhora from Blade Runner (1982).
Rayna Kapec, in "Requiem for Methuselah" an episode from (1969).
Reese, in "Menace" an episode from Stargate SG-1 (2002).
Rhoda from My Living Doll (1964 - 1965).
Rommie from Andromeda (2000 - 2004).
Ruth, in "Shore Leave" an episode from (1966).
Number Six from Battlestar Galactica (2003 - ).
The Sexaroids Sylvie and Anri from Bubblegum Crisis
The replacement women in The Stepford Wives.
The Supervisor droid, which controls the Electrocorp factory in the video game Rise of the Robots.
Synthetic females called Syns, from Future Syn (2004).
THELMA from Space Cases (1996 - 1997).
T-X (Terminatrix), from (2003).
Valerie 23, in "Valerie 23" an episode from The Outer Limits (2003).
Verda, in "The Android Machine" and "Revolt of the Androids" episodes from Lost in Space (1966)
VICI and Vanessa from Small Wonders (1985 - 1989).
R. Dorothy Wayneright from the anime Big O.

Japanese illustrator Hajime Sorayama is well-known for having female-shaped robots among his preferred themes.

Reference

Adams, Alison (1998) Artificial Knowing: Gender and the Thinking Machine. London and New York: Routledge. ISBN 0415129621
Balsamo, Anne (1996) Technologies of the Gendered Body: Reading Cyborg Women. Durham, NC: Duke University Press. ISBN 0822316862
Haraway, Donna J. (1991) Simians, Cyborgs and Women: The Reinvention of Nature. New York: Routledge. ISBN 0415903866
Jordana, Ludmilla (1989) Sexual Visions: Images of Gender in Science and Medicine between the Eighteenth and Twentieth Centuries. Madison, Wis.: University of Wisconsin Press. ISBN 0299122905
Leman, Joy (1991) "Wise Scientists and Female Androids: Class and Gender in Science Fiction." In, Corner, John, editor. Popular Television in Britain. London: BFI Publishing. ISBN 0-85170-269-4
Warner, Marina (2000) reprint Monuments and Maidens: The Allegory of the Female Form. Berkeley: Univ. of California Press. ISBN 0520227336

Gynoid

Early concepts

List of fictional gynoids

Reference

External links

See also