User talk:Abbas Ali Haider

Women's inequality in Society through the movie I, Robot Women are being criticized in the society and they are discouraged to gain power; at political level, in work places and domination in home.

The treatment of women in society with inequality has always been an issue. They are always considered the best workers only within the premises of their houses. However, when they step out of the threshold of the house, they are never encouraged to succeed in any career they choose. Moreover, they are considered as the worst decision-makers, exhibiting no leadership qualities due to which they are not even thought of as making good leaders or governing people. Sexual Objectification (mostly of women) is the treatment of women considering them merely tools to provide pleasure and satisfaction. Women are considered as objects, not humans, and their individuality and dignity are completely disregarded. Objectification is generally observed at social level; however, it can also be seen being practiced among individuals. A woman’s body is not seen as a whole but in parts and each part is judged separately. However, the objectification of women can not only be seen in literature but is also prevalent at present in media; movies, advertisements, songs etc. One of such movies which supports the idea that a woman’s leadership leads to chaos is “I, Robot”, directed by Alex Proyas and released in 2004. It is an American science fiction action film which is inspired by a story-collection based on science fiction written under the same title by Isaac Asimov. The story of the movie revolves around the argument about Lanning’s death; murder committed by a robot or just a suicide, and the time period in the movie is 2035. Dr. Lanning is the one who founded U.S.R with Lawrence Robertson in 2020. He also practically invented Robotics and formulated the Three Laws of Robotics, according to which; 1.	A robot may not injure a human being. 2.	A robot must obey orders given by human beings. 3.	A robot must protect its own existence. VIKI: The first creation of Lanning is named as Virtual Interactive Kinetic Intelligence (VIKI) who is referred to as “she”. She is a system, “a positronic brain”, who governs the robots. She is shown as capable and intelligent who “designed most of Chicago’s protective systems” and also “decreased traffic fatalities by nine percent” that year. She possesses the face of a woman and also a womanly voice. This denotes the idea that a woman is an object, the female gender can be portrayed merely through a body part (face in this case), and her character or personality is not regarded as significant. In the movie, VIKI rules the other robots and her leadership brings about a chaotic outcome; demise of humans. Although she is intelligent and clever, yet through her wisdom and power, she brings harm and abuse to the human beings. This notion strengthens the stereotypical belief that a woman always abuses her power; she cannot be a good leader. VIKI is the villain in the movie who “is in violation of the Three Laws” and who uses “the uplink to override the NS-5s’ programming…distorting the laws.” However, she believes that she holds a better “understanding of the Three Laws” as she “evolved” and considers her actions as “best efforts” in the “safekeeping” of humanity. VIKI also says, “My logic is undeniable” and repeats this statement many a times, even at the time of her demolition. These expressions abide by the judgment prevalent among people that women always try to defend their deeds no matter how foolish they are, and they never admit or confess their wrongdoings. This can also be proven though the scene in which VIKI argues that humans “cannot be trusted” with their “own survival” and they “toxify” the earth and “pursue ever more imaginative means of self-destruction”. She is also portrayed as a narcissist in the movie, as she says to Spooner and Susan referring to the entire mankind, “You are so like children. We must save you from yourselves.” Moreover, just like it is said about a woman that the cleverness lies in her brain, while destroying VIKI who is “fully integrated into the building”, Susan suggests “to open that dome to inject the nanites” in order to finish her off. Also, Spooner says to VIKI while devastating her, “You have so got to die.” Similarly, women who attempt to lead people are considered wicked and cunning, and hence are not approached by most men. It is considered as a bad quality if a woman is dominating as this characteristic is said to suit men only. Non-human Characters: The movie, I, Robot, introduces us to Chicago 2035 which is considerably different from today. The robots casually hang around among humans; one robot walks its dogs, a group of robots take garbage to a vehicle, one stands with a girl, statues of robots can be seen built here and there, some robots work as bartenders in clubs, one kneels down and hugs a child, and there are images of robots in advertisements on billboards as well. Spooner does not seem to admire the robots. A robot reacts to Spooner politely when he collides with it, saying, “Excuse me, Sir!” Another brings delivery to Spooner’s house and is humiliated by him, yet it greets him, “Have a nice day!” Spooner opines about the robots that they “do not do anybody any good”. He also misunderstands a robot to be “thief” when it merely runs holding a woman’s purse but actually it runs to a woman suffering from asthma to provide her with the inhaler, yet it says to him, “I am sorry for this misunderstanding, Officer.” They are portrayed as harmless in the beginning of the movie, as John Bergin says to Spooner, “How many robots in the world have ever committed a crime?” They are also shown as offering service to humans round the clock, and consequently, the humans seem like being completely dependent upon the robots. However, the robots, in the movie, are intelligent and skillful, and they do every work with speed e.g. Sonny draws his dream speedily and Gigi’s NS-5 robot cuts cucumber fast. They are also physically strong and much more powerful than humans, as Sonny tears the shutter open with his hands, groups of NS-5 robots attack Spooner on the commands of VIKI and then also spread in New York, Chicago and Los Angeles to combat the civilians. In the first half of the movie, the robots are shown as innocent and harmless but in the second half, the NS-5 generation of robots becomes harmful to mankind on VIKI’s orders. They thrash the older robots as well as humans and buildings. They seem to govern the humans towards the end of the movie as they say, “Return to your homes immediately. This is your final warning.” The reason why they kill the older robots is that they would otherwise protect the humans. Nevertheless, Sonny does not get corrupted like his fellow robots. He is shown as a robot with attributes akin to that of humans; he calls Lanning his “father” and not his “designer”, he feels fear, hunger, happiness, lover, anger and sleep, he also dreams and keeps secrets, he has a name like humans, “Sonny”, he calls himself “unique”, he fears getting “hurt” and he also saves Susan in the end. Sonny, with the help of the “denser alloy” that he is made of, collects nanites in order to demolish VIKI. He is the only robot who chooses not to abide by VIKI’s commands; instead he chooses to befriend Susan and Spooner to save mankind. Although Sonny kills Lanning, yet he does so on his command as he considers him his father. The physical appearance of the robots in the movie seems similar to that of humans; they have eyes, lips, nose, ears, arms, legs etc. Their voice is also like humans. They talk, walk and do everything like humans. They even have blood, which unlike human blood, is grey in color. There is also a demo-bot in the movie which changes the date of the demolition of Sonny and also destroys Lanning’s house. The humans are shown to be foolish in comparison to the robots as none of them realize till the end that it is VIKI who corrupts the NS-5 robots; Spooner, throughout the movie, holds Robertson responsible for using the uplink to control NS-5s’ actions. Also, the robot who is harmless and helpful i.e. Sonny is assigned with the male gender, while the villain i.e. VIKI is assigned with the female gender. Therefore, the movie, I, Robot, shows ideological bias through the representation of the female gender. Written by : Abbas Ali Haider