Alex Garland’s science-fiction film Ex Machina (2015) focuses around a female-presenting humanoid AI named Ava, her creator, the eccentric and wealthy Nathan, and Caleb, Nathan’s employee who is testing Ava’s capabilities. Due to the sexual nature of Ava and other AIs within the movie, many critics have condemned Garland for perpetuating the sexual exploitation of women. However, critics have also claimed the movie is meant to empower women and support a feminist movement. Due to the criticism of exploitation represented in the character of Kyoko, the weaponized nature of Ava’s forced sexuality, and the depiction historic feminism, Garland creates a feminist film seeking to ultimately empower women. Kyoko is initially introduced
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This same trope is seen in other movies, such as the “basic pleasure model” seen in the 1982 film Blade Runner. Ava was clearly created with sexuality in mind; Nathan created her appearance with Caleb’s pornography preferences taken in to consideration and even tells Caleb “In between her legs, there’s an opening with a concentration of sensors. You engage them in the right way, it creates a pleasure response. So, if you wanted to screw her, mechanically speaking, you could. And she’d enjoy it.”1 Despite being a machine given a female orientation, she has still been sexualized against her will. However, rather than accepting her sexual subservience to human males, Ava uses it as a weapon against them. When Caleb is testing Ava in order to see if she passes the Turing Test, she capitalizes on her appearance and the sexuality that she has had thrust upon her. She begins to seduce Caleb and convince him that they should run away together, by suggesting that she has romantic feelings for him, particularly upon learning that Nathan intends to essentially kill her.1 When discussing Ava’s manipulation during the Turing Test, Tim Tuttle, former MIT AI researcher describes it as, "[Ex Machina] proposed a sort of inverse where it 's not enough to have a human be deceived for a machine to be real. The machine needs to convince the human to do things for it -- to fall in love with it, to serve …show more content…
While looking in Nathan’s computer, Caleb finds videos of an abundance of AIs that Nathan has created and ultimately gotten rid of.1 The videos show a series of robots, nude and missing body parts, being dragged from room to room, as well as one demanding to know why Nathan won’t allow her to leave her captivity.1 She grows increasingly agitated over the course of the video, and eventually screams “Why won’t you let me out?!” and beating her arms against the material separating them until she has destroyed her arms.1 These versions of Ava are all eventually deactivated, but they represent the long line of women that have been oppressed prior to Ava’s existence. In particular, the AI beating her arms and screaming for freedom parallels the feminists who long fought for rights that they would never live to see. However, their sacrifices are what make it possible for Ava to be free of oppression. In a particularly powerful scene, Ava removes the body parts and skin of the AIs seen in Nathan’s videos in order to make herself appear to be human.1 Ava represents the modern feminist, who is only truly able to enjoy rights and privileges thanks to the sacrifices of those who fought, and failed, before her. Similarly, Kyoko’s sacrifice makes it possible for Ava to be free of their oppressor. By sacrificing herself to stab Nathan and save Ava from being imprisoned again, Ava is able to
This same trope is seen in other movies, such as the “basic pleasure model” seen in the 1982 film Blade Runner. Ava was clearly created with sexuality in mind; Nathan created her appearance with Caleb’s pornography preferences taken in to consideration and even tells Caleb “In between her legs, there’s an opening with a concentration of sensors. You engage them in the right way, it creates a pleasure response. So, if you wanted to screw her, mechanically speaking, you could. And she’d enjoy it.”1 Despite being a machine given a female orientation, she has still been sexualized against her will. However, rather than accepting her sexual subservience to human males, Ava uses it as a weapon against them. When Caleb is testing Ava in order to see if she passes the Turing Test, she capitalizes on her appearance and the sexuality that she has had thrust upon her. She begins to seduce Caleb and convince him that they should run away together, by suggesting that she has romantic feelings for him, particularly upon learning that Nathan intends to essentially kill her.1 When discussing Ava’s manipulation during the Turing Test, Tim Tuttle, former MIT AI researcher describes it as, "[Ex Machina] proposed a sort of inverse where it 's not enough to have a human be deceived for a machine to be real. The machine needs to convince the human to do things for it -- to fall in love with it, to serve …show more content…
While looking in Nathan’s computer, Caleb finds videos of an abundance of AIs that Nathan has created and ultimately gotten rid of.1 The videos show a series of robots, nude and missing body parts, being dragged from room to room, as well as one demanding to know why Nathan won’t allow her to leave her captivity.1 She grows increasingly agitated over the course of the video, and eventually screams “Why won’t you let me out?!” and beating her arms against the material separating them until she has destroyed her arms.1 These versions of Ava are all eventually deactivated, but they represent the long line of women that have been oppressed prior to Ava’s existence. In particular, the AI beating her arms and screaming for freedom parallels the feminists who long fought for rights that they would never live to see. However, their sacrifices are what make it possible for Ava to be free of oppression. In a particularly powerful scene, Ava removes the body parts and skin of the AIs seen in Nathan’s videos in order to make herself appear to be human.1 Ava represents the modern feminist, who is only truly able to enjoy rights and privileges thanks to the sacrifices of those who fought, and failed, before her. Similarly, Kyoko’s sacrifice makes it possible for Ava to be free of their oppressor. By sacrificing herself to stab Nathan and save Ava from being imprisoned again, Ava is able to