CHM Gender

Attaching a gender to the robot humanizes it and its actions. I want to point out that another reason for this gendering has to do with the language used on the Internet. The use of gendered subjects in reference to anything, where the gender is either inapplicable or unclear, is a fairly common template. Saying 'he's dying' or 'she's doing her best' may not be an enforcement of gendered ideologies, but more a term of endearment since there is also no real rhyme or reason to us he vs she. I ask myself if I can tell the difference between a meme format or an empathetic use of gendering.  

However while the majority of the time commenters used ‘he’ pronouns, I find this work to be specifically more feminine gendered, mainly due to the red liquid the robot is programmed to endlessly scrape towards itself. It immediately calls to mind menstruation and the constant relationship woman with a uterus have with it. Here I want to apply the idea of the  abject. According to Rosemary Betterton in her piece on Body Horror, "the abject is that which defines what is fully human from what is not,” (133).  It describes the blurring between the internal and external boundaries of the body and how bodily fluids (like blood, mucus, etc…) existing outside their natural container is unnerving. The blood that is subject to the robot’s futile scraping alludes to menstrual blood with its color and references . The robot is stuck in an endless cycle of blood ______, in the same way a woman too can be subject to similar bloody relationships within her own body.