#technoorientalism

In Ex Machina, Ava’s purpose I believe is to successfully pass an intelligence test which is “dependent on the machine’s ability to deceive its human interrogator – a sign of artificial intelligence that is made analogous with gender performance”..i.e. femaleeeessss use deception

In popular mythology, Durga was created to destroy an "evil” Asura- here Mahisasura- the buffalo king who waged a war against the gods (devas). Since no man could kill Mahisasura, the gods conjured up Durga in their celestial laboratory. She used deception too.

Durga’s gender performance is patriotic motherhood and has roots in anti Muslim rhetoric in Hindu nationalist movements since the 19th century.

“The distinction between automaton and post-human subject in Ex Machina is drawn along racial lines” where an Asian “android-coolie” (Kyoko) is contrasted with white Ava whose process of self actualization--exploring poetry, philosophy, art, and ultimately- self sufficiency or freedom- comes at the sacrifice of the non-speaking android.

The distinction between good and evil in Durga’s case is drawn along 1) caste 2) xenophobic and religious lines. Asuras are the Tribal and Dalit communities such as Bagdi, Santhalis, Mundas and Namasudras for whom Mahisasura is a martyr.

In Hindu nationalism the outsider (ghuspetia) is the Muslim citizen. Since Durga has been appropriated by Brahmin paramilitary outfits like the RSS, she could be a product of its IT cell, part of the world's largest experiment in social-media-fueled terror.

Both Ava and Durga (the brahmin woman) self actualize in their fortresses/caste bubbles -incidentally “durga” literally means fort in Sanskrit!- While the “android-coolies” do the upkeep, with very little agency.

“Bahujan labour was and is an indispensable way through which the feminist “independence” of working Brahmin women like my mother and grandmother has been enabled”- Pallavi Rao

I noticed Ava being considered a feminist icon- here as Ava the Alpha and a lot is written about Durga’s masculine power-but both Ava and Durga are nothing but constructions of white, Brahmin womanhood. Ava doesn’t help Kyoko escape the facility and Durga is specifically built as a shield against Brahminism’s caste and xenophobic anxieties

“Feminism is not about getting equal rights. It is about abolishing all systems of exploitation that also use gender as a means to demarcate a small ruling class of humans as worthy and everyone else as deserving of suffering and death on a scale.”-- obaa_boni

In that respect they’re are not feminist at all. Both are artificial women created in a lab in the mountains- with the explicit purpose of forwarding their patriarch’s agenda.

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References: Dismembered Asian/American Android Parts in Ex Machina as ‘Inorganic’ Critique -- Danielle Wong

The Brahmin Mistress and the Bahujan Maid --Pallavi Rao

Ex Machina: A (White) Feminist Parable for Our Time-- J.A. Micheline