Thus, the gender dichotomy constructs and perpetuates social inequalities. As it is the system of gender dichotomies which underlies gender domination, deconstructing gender (in anticipation of disposing of it altogether) leads to the dissolution of that power structure.

Such dismantling calls for a paradigm shift in social organization, leading to a radical re-thinking of gender. One way in which this paradigm shift can occur is through the use of technology. How this can be accomplished, and to what end, must be imagined before being implemented. In this paper, I examine such instances of imagined gender transgression through the depiction of the half-human, half-machine cyborg characters of cyberpunk fiction. In order to tease out the subversive intent of these narratives of gender, I begin by defining cyberpunk as a distinct subgenre of science fiction.

Razor girls: genre and gender in cyberpunk fiction