Thimbleful Thursday: Vent

[aldersprig]

Content warning: Barbie nudity discussed, technology/human hybrid



“The trick has always been balance.” Idella Passmore had that dangerous combination of skilled enthusiasm and charisma; the tour group was listening intently, despite having no idea what she was talking about. “You want sufficient technology to retard or stop decay, of course, but people want to be people. This particular model involves a cybernetic torso with a RealSkin(tm) cover. Most of the organs have been replaced, but the brain remains and the heart continues to pump blood. In some cases, we choose to keep the uterus; in some we replace the heart with a technological marvel like our HeartPump2000.”

read on…

Comments

[kelkyag]

Nope. Nope nope nope nope nope nope! ACK, NO!

[aldersprig]

Oh dear I squicked out the K.
O_o

[kelkyag]

O_o That wasn't the goal? Where would this be going that didn't involve body horror, dehumanization, and possibly ... not quite all the way to mind-rape, but at least less-than-delicate mangling of emotions?

[aldersprig]

Urrm, Transhumanism with a tone-deaf author? *abashed* Also a bad pun?

[kelkyag]

It's a terrible pun. Appreciating those is sauergeek's job. :)

The only suggestion in this that what's done with this technology is done only to people who want it done to them is "but people want to be people". Other than that, the only person in the scene marked as a cyborg/transhuman is silent, nameless, at least semi-nude, sexualized, and brightly smiling. Phrasing like "in some cases, we choose to keep the uterus" suggest that it's the company making the decisions, not the person being modified. The whole thing reads as a sales pitch for the model, as "you want to own one of these", not "you want to be awesome like her", and the model being sold can be fertile or not as the buyer wishes, in pain or not as the buyer wishes, and ... possibly angry or upset, but that, too, can be turned off with a button press. ETA: the "barbie nudity" warning also suggests the model is a toy rather than person.

Nope nope nope nope nope!

If Idella were showing *herself* off, and/or was also explicitly marked as also cyborg/transhuman (maybe not sufficient by itself), and/or introduced the model who could in turn show off her capabilities or explain her option choices, it could read quite differently.

[aldersprig]

Oh, the barbie nudity was a phrasing from art people do: there is nudity but no sexual organs.

The rest of it… yeah. Cal talked me through it and I could see afterwards why, I just hadn’t been thinking through it so much as going for the pun.

A talking model or more sense that it was something people could have done to themselves, check.

Or let it stay horror.

Thanks for taking the time!!

[kelkyag]

<nod> "Barbie nudity" wouldn't bother me in other contexts, but it added a little nudge in that direction given the specifics of the story.

Or let it stay horror.
Or kink. (YKINMKATOK) Replace "body horror" with "bondage" and it's the sort of thing you write fairly often, but with different content warnings. :} "Any cybernetic upgrade package you want, at the cost of a ten year real doll indenture!"

Compare with In a Fashion, where the researchers are wearing heavily modified bodies and little or sexualized clothing, but are also clearly the ones designing and selecting the body styles they're wearing.

Also, thank you Cal: it is reassuring that it's not entirely me twitching out over nothing. :}

[sauergeek]

This reminds me of how I played The Nicest Slaver (and I am not in the least sarcastic about any of that; he really was a nice slaver) in a LARP a few years ago. The first time the players encountered him, each one separately, after close of game, told me that they wanted a bath after dealing with him.

I took it to mean I'd done a good job playing the part. Reading this story is like coming at it from the player side of things. I can now see why they wanted that bath. Yike!

[clare_dragonfly]

Ahhhhh. Gross. I think this is being sold to men, not to the women who might be "living" in those bodies. Eugh. Well done.