Metropolis: The Robot Maria and Barack Obama

I was thinking about the Movie Metropolis when I read of how confused and contrived the timeline and composite autobiographic rendering of Obama really is. Then I thought, how much Like Maria in Metropolis. IF you haven't seen the movie in a while it's out there on you tube..but in parts.

The "Nature" of the Female Cyborg:
Evidence of Will in the Mechanical Woman

"To my knowledge, the motif of the machine-woman in Metropolis has never been analyzed in any depth." -- Andreas Huyssen

by Francesca Myman
Encased in a white sparkling sheath, a Robot in the shape of a woman ascends into the center of a large round frame. Framed by the crazed face and arms of Rotwang, the mad inventor, the metal face of the robot stares out like an extension of his head, an Athena caught birthing from the head of Zeus.
Strange scribbles on a map look almost like a schematic for a body. A rounded belly-like form indicates a cavern.
The dark spider-like shadow of the robot shimmies up a shadow ladder with inhuman speed.
The robot of Fritz Lang's Metropolis exposes the problematic nature of men's obsession with the femme fatale as sex object. She seems undeniably only surface and image, a metal collage. The robot Maria is constructed by a collage of cinematic images. As such, she presumably cannot experience feelings, exultation in her actions, or free will. Although her face mimics these emotions and her actions at times appear autonomous, by that token they must be a travesty of real human feeling. It is impossible to excuse men's fascination with her by qualifying it with: "Well, she is a real woman -- it's not the ideal or phantasm monster figure that is pursued, but a true human being." The attribution of an invisible but palpable soul is difficult. Even her sexuality must be soulless and mechanical. "She spreads her veils, exhibits her almost naked body, and begins to dance. . . Intensely, totally absorbed in voyeurism, the audience is all eyes, all stares. . . a repeated frame shows a series of huge eyes, a mosaic of fascinated stares, of eyes popping out of heads. . ." (Dadoun 145-146) Her "almost naked body" is literally an exhibit, a novelty approximating womanhood and capable of performing ritual acts, such as the Salome-esque "spreading of the veils". This waxwork woman is capable of reducing men to body parts and hypnotizing their souls, as represented by the image of the eye. However, it is difficult to determine whether or not this metal husk has a soul.
It can be argued that the robot is in fact given a "breath of life". She is surprisingly similar to her flesh and blood femme fatale sisters. Initially, the robot appears as an uncomplicated example of an unwilled, appearance-oriented object:

The robot, as we have seen, is a kind of image of that automatized, hollowed- out, modern self -- an image that underscores a degree to which we have become mechanized, programmed beings, bodies detached from all spirit. It is a detachment, though, that might help us to know ourselves once more, to discern our humanity, and thus to reconstruct our sense of self: The robot's inspirational capacity, its ability, in one sense or another, to take life represents nothing less than the indelible imprint of its original, the ghost of man that inhabits the machine. It thus images a possibility for subversion, individuality, and self-realization by suggesting that the schizophrenia this world seems to foster, the imaginary it constructs, might eventually be turned against it to free up the self. (Telotte 22)

The blank metal mask of the robot seems especially well-designed to represent a purely mechanical being, separate from intimations of human spirit. Although meaning can be extrapolated from her appearance, this interpretation of the robot as an icon of modern soullessness is the result of the gaze of the human observer. The robot in this scenario is ultimately sexless, an "it" which cannot truly occupy gender roles. It is a "copy". Only a ghost, a reminder, of the human spirit, can inhabit its metal body, and that only by the association with its original creators. Its human form, constructed by Rotwang, can merely evoke comparison with an original human template, which may create incidental meaning. In this view, although the robot has potential for subversion, this quality is not inherent. At the same time, the idea of the "ghost of man" inhabiting the machine reaches towards the attribution of a displaced soul. Although "imaginary", the robot may "turn on its creators." However, this action is presented as merely self-reflexive, occurring within the viewer.

Metropolis: The Robot Maria