My Fair Ladies: Female Robots, Androids, and Other Artificial Eves

The fantasy of a male creator constructing his perfect woman dates back to the Greek myth of Pygmalion and Galatea. Yet as technology has advanced over the past century, the figure of the lifelike manmade woman has become nearly ubiquitous, popping up in everything from Bride of Frankenstein to Weird Science to The Stepford Wives. Now Julie Wosk takes us on a fascinating tour through this bevy of artificial women, revealing the array of cultural fantasies and fears they embody.and#160;and#160;My Fair Ladies considers how female automatons have been represented as objects of desire in fiction and how andldquo;living dollsandrdquo; have been manufactured as real-world fetish objects. But it also examines the many works in which the andldquo;perfectandrdquo; woman turns out to be artificialandmdash;a robot or dollandmdash;and thus becomes a source of uncanny horror. Finally, Wosk introduces us to a variety of female artists, writers, and filmmakersandmdash;from Cindy Sherman to Shelley Jackson to Zoe Kazanandmdash;who have cleverly crafted their own images of simulated women.and#160;and#160;Anything but dry, My Fair Ladies draws upon Woskandrsquo;s own experiences as a young female Playboy copywriter and as a child of the andldquo;feminine mystiqueandrdquo; era to show how images of the artificial woman have loomed large over real womenandrsquo;s lives. Lavishly illustrated with film stills, artwork, and vintage advertisements, this book offers a fresh look at familiar myths about gender, technology, and artistic creation.and#160;and#160;and#160;

andquot;Wide-ranging, lively, and thoroughly researched, Julie Woskandrsquo;s book expertly guides us through the cultural meanings of artificial females in myth, literature, movies, television, art, and photography, among other fields.andquot;

andquot;This is the and#39;cyborg manifestoand#39; for technology, gender, and art in the twenty-first century. The search for the and#39;perfect womanand#39; in film, art, photography, and technology collides with the reality of the complex and imperfect that is the essential human experience.andquot;

andquot;From Ovidand#39;s Metamorphoses to The Stepford Wives, from Enlightenment automata to 21st century robotics, Julie Wosk takes us on an amazingand#160; tour of ideas about technology, about human perfection and about gender.andquot;

andquot;Wosk presents a riveting portrait of simulated women, female robots, and robot technology in media and art from ancient generations to modern-day creations. The author provides insight about generational interpretation of the and#39;perfect womanand#39; and the depiction of simulated women to reconcile societal fears of changing gender roles and emerging technologies.andquot;

andquot;Why are automatons so attractive? And just what is this andldquo;perfect womanandrdquo; anyway? Rounding up a veritable sorority of artificial Eves, Julie Wosk delves into the issues in her latest book My Fair Ladies, casting an analytical eye over female depictions, both physical and fictitious, to explore the history and the future of Woman 2.0.andquot; andlt;brandgt;Read the article andquot;and#39;Living dolls: sci-fiandrsquo;s fascination with artificial womenand#39; at: http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2015/jul/13/living-dolls-artificial-women-robots

Taking us on a fascinating tour across a wide variety of media, from sci-fi films to underwear ads, My Fair Ladies introduces us to a bevy of lifelike, manmade women, from automatons to artificial intelligent robots. Julie Wosk considers how this figure of the andldquo;perfect womanandrdquo; has come to embody not only fantasies, but also fears about gender and technology. In addition, she examines how female artists have subverted these images of the artificial woman that loom so large over real womenandrsquo;s lives.and#160;

JULIE WOSK is a professor of art history, English, and studio painting at the State University of New York, Maritime College in New York City. She is the author of Women and the Machine: Representations From the Spinning Wheel to the Electronic Age and Breaking Frame: Technology and the Visual Arts in the Nineteenth Century.and#160;and#160;