The machine-beings that emerge from these couplings thus demon-strate a different form of identity, o
I had to come back to this when I had a memory flash-back. My oldest daughter had Polio before we adopted her from China. For years she had to wear a full leg brace (KAFO) to keep her from hyper-extending her weak and somewhat underdeveloped leg. At first people assumed the brace was temporary, but eventually she started calling it her "bionic leg." It worked. People laughed. It opened up a conversation about her leg rather than making it an object of negative conjecture.
So, to diffuse ideas about disability, difference, and "other," she took on the identity of a cyborg, which acted rhetorically and psychologically on herself and others to diminish the "other" distinction. Calling herself a cyborg became a rhetoric of inclusion.