A Life Measured: The Parasitic Nature Of Capitalist Dystopia

Science Fiction and Social Reality

Science Fiction and dystopia in particular have its narrative roots for most part in current affairs, science and technology, and the discussion and debate of its more troubling nature. The roots act as a social dialogue of sorts within science fiction films and writings. It has been thirty years since Margaret Atwood penned the world of Gilead and its leading ladies under the oppressive regime of a fictitious dystopian future. I wanted to use this dystopia as a starting point, not only to highlight its current relevance and importance, but also to explore our current social dialogue that still permeates the medium even now.

Although the article begins with Atwood’s dystopia it highlights a pattern of Capitalist extraction of surplus value ¹as theorised by Marx. Initially exploring themes in The Handmaid’s Tale, the article moves onto extraction and surplus value, first in the form of reproduction, before applying an extraction theory lens to other science fiction dystopias. The Matrix, Never Let Me Go, Blade Runner 2049 and Johnathan Glazer’s Under The Skin are explored and evidenced to suggest how their roots are not a speculation of the future but a product rooted in the world in which we live. In Donna Harroway’s Cyborg Manifesto ² she states “The boundary between science fiction and social reality is an optical illusion” This article aims to explore just a fraction of that boundary.

It’s quite significant that The Handmaid’s Tale is sometimes categorised as dystopian science- fiction. The truth be told it feels too far removed to be considered a possibility or a representation of truth. Speculative fiction is usually driven by the cultural dialogue of the time and this speaks volumes after thirty years on our shelves and divulges just how far society has come in the pursuit of women’s rights.

“Her fault, her fault, her fault.”

Margaret Atwood

Both the Novel and the Amazon Prime series do well to tell the tale of the current climate and victim blaming culture. When Ofwarren divulges that she had been gang raped at fourteen. Aunt Lydia asks: “Who’s fault is it?” And the handmaid’s chant “Her fault, her fault, her fault. Teach her a lesson, teach her a lesson!” Exploring present-day society of victim blaming culture and the rate of women who do not come forward after being assaulted, it stands at a staggering 75%. ³ The internationally famous rape case of Brock Turner, ⁴ who served just months of a jail sentence has perpetuated a culture in which the rapist becomes the victim, much like of the relationship between Mr Waterford and Ofglen.

“A third of people who were surveyed believed that women who flirt are partially responsible for being raped. “

Crime Survey for England and Wales

In the year 2016 to the end of March 2017, the Crime Survey for England and Wales ⁵(CSEW) estimated that only 15% of rape cases are taken forward and that conviction rates for rape are far lower than other crimes with only 5.7% of reported cases ending in conviction for the perpetrator. Finally, a third of people who were surveyed believed that women who flirt are partially responsible for being raped. So even after thirty years both the book and the series reveal a culture in which female victims are held responsible for male crimes as they are anointed wardens of the wandering libido.

The Ardent Anti-Feminist

With the exception of Nick, the men in Gilead are vile subjects of toxic masculinity. However, the more worrying aspects of the show are the women who consume the patriarchy and stand in silence as women are subjected to misogyny, coercion and control. Serena Joy, the wife of Mr Waterford is a loyal supporter of the oppressive regime and an activist for anti-feminism. She was prototyped on Phyllis Schlafly ⁶, a Californian conservative that repealed the equal rights amendment. What’s concerning is that the Serena Joy of today could also be prototyped on some high-profile women such as Melania Trump ⁷or worse Pauline Hanson ⁸ an ardent anti-feminist who proposed cuts to parental leave because in her words “Women would get themselves pregnant.” More recently was the repealing of women’s rights signed off by Kay Ivey ⁹who passed a bill in Alabama to quash abortion at any stage, under any circumstance.

Women have been out in force marching in full Handmaid attire with signs that read “Make Margaret Atwood Fiction Again” ¹⁰ The message is clear that those who take part in in women’s marches quite often have the freedom and individual liberty to do so, but for some women especially those who fall outside of European laws (with the exception of Poland, Malta and Cyprus) and even more so women of colour or working lower classes.

In England we don’t agitate for basic human freedoms. However, this is overshadowed by the fact that some women have first-hand experience with Offred’s life. The women in India’s surrogacy hostels ¹¹ who’s plight has them renting their wombs for the chance to clamber out of poverty, or mothers of the stolen generation who can relate to Offred’s child being snatched away as they too try to reclaim missing members of their family. It’s still poignant and relatable now. ¹² Although it may seem far removed from the UK and our British philosophy, austerity measures ¹³ have had women on the bread line unable to feed and clothe their children, making a case for social services to re-home them elsewhere in foster-care or with new adoptive parents.

In The Handmaid’s Tale a woman’s worth was dependent on her ability to produce life as a group of white men decided the fate of the women’s body. It’s a reflection of the bill that was passed on a vote of 25 white men ¹⁴ in the state of Alabama and passed by the anti-feminist Kay Ivey. Atwood herself compared these laws to a form of slavery. Ofwarren (Janine) who’s character had previously had an abortion is bullied by the Handmaids for doing so and is forced later to give birth. Further on in the narrative she attempts to take her own life. Atwood’s, social dialogue came from the communities she had researched far and wide, it was about expressing a truth within fiction. She exclaimed at a Q&A in New York:

“Who’s going to pay for the orphans of the dead women? Because that’s what you’re going to have. And I’m waiting for the first lawsuit. I’m waiting, you know, in which the family of the dead woman sues.”

Margaret Atwood

Taking away choice is something that will affect all women but ultimately the lower waged population ¹⁵ who cannot afford to take a flight to a different state where choice is possible or have the financial cushion to support a child. This leaves those in poverty further impoverished and at a disadvantage, but it will also mean the working-class female will return to work in lower waged jobs to support her family, keeping the capitalist cog turning and the Neo-liberal ideals just an Ideology:

“There is nothing new and nothing liberal about Neoliberalism.”

Noam Chomsky

Neo-liberalism has elaborated a narrative of female empowerment and instead of finding a new and liberal path it harnesses the dream of women’s emancipation to the machine that is Capitalism and offers women to “Lean in” and work harder for less pay than their male counterparts:

“Women’s Liberation has become endangered and entangled in Neo-liberal efforts to build a free market.”

Nancy Fraser

Feminists once criticised a society that promoted careerism and became a movement with an ideology of social solidarity among women. It now promotes a very different view of female CEO’s, Careerism and individual advancement. The motto “We can do it” Is now replaced with I can do it as it shifts away from the state welfare provision.

“The second wave of feminism was a critique of the first, but it has now become the Handmaiden of the second.” Nancy Fraser ¹⁶ As women are pitted against one another in a hierarchical environment that can be seen in the narrative of the Handmaid’s Tale.

The feminist emphasis has also been predominantly focused on gender identity and class struggle instead of challenging racial inequality, domestic violence, sexual assault and reproductive oppression for all of which the laws and legislation have remained stagnant. This is emphasised in Atwood’s work and as women’s rights are further repealed it’s not hard to imagine a world where Gilead exists and with places like Iran among many others ¹⁷ , it seems imminent. If you control the women, you control the population and for the first time restrictions on men’s bodies ¹⁸ have been impacted too reducing women to baby making machines, extracting a new generation of menial workers and front line cannon fodder.

The feminist contribution ¹⁹ to paternalism has also converged with neo-liberalist ideals of nongovernment organisation. Microcredit, (Small loans for impoverished people to begin a business) is touted as entrepreneurship to alleviate poverty. In hindsight, the loans have boomed and the support and infrastructure from the government to fight poverty has diminished or receded and left small businesses with high interest rates. ²⁰ Neo-liberalism and capitalism are no longer viable agendas as corporations and privatised business depoliticise social problems they create:

“We live in a world where bankers are the heroes and debt is our salvation.“

Jason Hickel

Again, feeding the bloodsuckers from the bottom up through a matter of extraction (Marx).

Science Fiction: The Extraction Process

Applying this same extraction lens to other dystopian science fiction films and highlighting the relationship with capitalism and the economy, This form of extraction is evident in many ways. ²¹ The Matrix sets up the dystopian effect of late capitalism, which depicts what capital does in order to replenish society. As we go about our business attached to our phones and devices blurring the lines between work and play until there are no boundaries, and both become one. ²² It’s representative of our daily lives, the consumer zombie in us and the bodies that feed the machine as a method of extraction; data mining, access to our personal time, through work group chats, or email that extend our office hours and the insidious advertising that no longer waits for us to switch on the TV set. It’s in our pockets, it’s with us everywhere we go, it knows what we want and when we want it due to our consumer habits and its crafty algorithms. Apple may make I-Phone’s but their overt use of data collection is a valuable surplus, it extracts value directly from us as individuals and we willing accept our terms and conditions and let it.

The Dystopian Never Let Me Go depicts a cohort of clones not like the kind for combat, as depicted in space operas such as star wars but clones for the rich, whose whole existence is based on replenishment. What is important is that the story is not too far removed from the extraction of capitalism today: Human organ ²³ and egg sales ²⁴ have a global thriving market selling to the wealthier population, representative of a system in which unknown, undervalued, under represented navvies feed the bulk or the “Matrix” in which we live, both legally and illegally across the world.

In Blade Runner 2049 the elevated hierarchy exploit it’s replicant’s and enslave them as an “Other” non-human, which reflects the oppression of subordinate groups within our own society and the hegemonic fashion we fall under. Making the young factory workers little cogs in the bigger machine with no alternative, which sounds familiar because it is. Children of the Agbogbloshie ²⁵ site in Africa source and strip equipment from the biggest E-Waste site in the world, as technology advances faster than you can say “upgrade me.”

Johnathan Glazer’s Under The Skin could be seen as a dystopian view of these future technologies beyond the now that act callously, with a metaphorical thirst for human flesh. As Johansson devours her victims one by one she leaves helpless people to die and children to perish. It could also be representative of our apathy to let the world go to hell or stand by and even watch or be complicit in human suffering. It’s only when Scarlett Johansson is under the skin of another human being, she begins to feel empathy for her wrongdoing signifying a former detachment from humanity as an AI. As we might feel detachment behind our screens at a distance from human contact.

The film is ambiguous but significantly focused on the vulnerable and the victims she lures to their demise. Johansson is not your usual sex symbol promoting a science fiction epic, but more of a brooding force to be reckoned with. Her feminine appearance is the guise of a juicy worm. Until the sharp sting of a hook reveals the baited entrapment. Just as the female commodity has been punted for decades under the capitalist regime. However, It’s a little different. In this film as a prevalent sex symbol Johansson is exposed in her first nude scene but is patently asexual and in the final moments her skin falls away and all that’s left as an empty wrapper. This leans into a pivotal question at the end of the film that lingers. When will our own cultural beliefs and the notion of gender identity be able to do the same? Furthermore, her genderless form also represents the absence of the feminine as it carries out orders without question to “feed the machine” or higher power as also depicted in The Matrix.

“It is easier to imagine the end of the world than to imagine the end of capitalism.“

Fredric Jameson

In the current climate these comments could be more aligned with climate-change denialism and the sentiment that “it is easier to desire the end of the world than to desire the end of capitalism”. ²⁶ However, the credit crisis and collective movements such as extinction rebellion and the #MeToo ²⁷ movement has given way to a new wave of thought. Dystopian Science Fiction film paints a gloomy view of the future because our current states of affairs dictates our fictional narrative. All Dystopian futures have been influenced by the present, from Orwell’s Animal Farm and the rise of fascism, to Atwood’s tale of rebellion and repression. Dystopia and Capitalism go hand in hand but as the cracks begin to show, change is pathing the way to post-capitalism ideals in the form of , diverse economies and collective movements. So the question is, will the Science Fiction Film genre look to a more Utopian view of the world?

The unfortunate re-assertion of capitalism that was maintained after the banking crisis and the election of far-right political figures makes this unlikely in the here and now. However, the pay-outs and political shifts endured have left us skeptical and as the dust clears and the rubble of our ignorance scatters the ground, our curiosity continues to chip away at the concrete structure that is capitalism and the patriarchy. I don’t know about you, but I would like to see how that reality plays out, even if it be a fictional one for now.

What do you think? Leave a comment.