Cyberpunk: A Genre for the Marginalized
Hot on the heels of yesterday’s blog post, we turn to our first “punk” subgenre: cyberpunk. It’s more than just dark, rain-drenched, neon-lit city streets crawling with humans with robot limbs, though; the entire genre is emblematic of the need to struggle and rebel against authoritarianism in all its forms.
This science fiction subgenre emerged in the late 1970s and early 1980s, often seen as an outgrowth of the New Wave SF movement of the 1960s and 1970s. Some of the hallmarks of cyberpunk include characterizing a dark, gritty vision of the future where technology has become ubiquitous and has led to the rise of a new class of marginalized people. Cyberpunk often explores themes of alienation, oppression, and resistance, making it a subgenre that resonates with people of color (PoC), the Queer community, and many other marginalized communities out there today.
Life Imitates Art In All the Wrong Ways
One of the things that makes cyberpunk so relevant to marginalized communities is its focus on the ways in which technology can be used to oppress and control people. In many cyberpunk stories, technology is used by corporations or governments to surveil, track, and control the population. This can be seen as a reflection of the real-world ways in which technology is used to discriminate against and oppress marginalized communities.
For example, in the novel "Neuromancer" by William Gibson (often considered the seminal cyberpunk novel) the protagonist Case is a hacker who is hired by a corporation to steal a powerful data-processing device. The corporation uses the device to track and control its employees, and Case is eventually forced to go on the run from the corporation. This story reflects the real-world ways in which corporations use technology to track and control their employees, especially in a post-COVID landscape. Many companies that have transitioned to remote working for their employees have been accused of fomenting resentment by monitoring workers in their own homes using technology.
Another way cyberpunk resonates with marginalized communities is its focus on the ways in which technology can be used to empower marginalized communities. In many cyberpunk stories, technology is used by marginalized people to fight back against oppression. This can be seen as a reflection of the real-world ways in which technology is being used by marginalized communities to fight for their rights. Think of the film “Blade Runner”, where the replicants - artificially intelligent beings created by the Tyrell Corporation - are forced to live in poverty and hunted down by the police. These replicants rise up against their oppressors and fight for their freedom, much in the same real-world ways that marginalized communities are constantly fighting for their right simply to exist without being treated as subhuman.
A Two-Edged Vibrosword
As a genre, cyberpunk is often overlooked for its ability to resonate with the experiences of marginalized communities. Yet despite this, cyberpunk can be a powerful tool for exploring the ways in which technology can be used to oppress and control people, and yet at the same time can also be used to showcase how technology can be used to empower people by turning the tools of the oppressor against them.
In addition to the themes of oppression and resistance, cyberpunk also often explores themes of identity and community. In a world where technology has blurred the lines between what is human and what is machine, cyberpunk asks questions about what it means to be human. It also explores the ways in which marginalized communities can find strength and belonging in each other. This, too, makes it socially relevant today - forging stronger connections among PoC, Queer, and other marginalized communities is one of the few ways these communities can not just survive but also thrive, especially in today’s toxic cultural landscape.
Despite its relative age, cyberpunk is a genre that is constantly evolving and is still relevant today as it was when it was first conceptualized. As technology continues to change our world, cyberpunk can help us to understand the challenges and opportunities that lie ahead. It can also help us to imagine a better future for ourselves and for our communities. In a world where corporations are quite literally designing robot dogs that can be used as militarized security forces, the only way to survive in the face of technologies being leveraged for such nascent authoritarianism is to do so together.
Got an idea for a cyberpunk story of your own? Want it included in our new anthology, Punk’s Not Dead? Visit Blackwarren’s Submissions page today!
