Starboard Vineyard Tours 15: Cyberpunk's masculinist legacy: Puppetry, labour and ménage à trois in Blade Runner 2049, Murphy

For this episode, we read Graham J. Murphy's article “Cyberpunk's masculinist legacy: Puppetry, labour and ménage à trois in Blade Runner 2049” published in Science Fiction Film and Television, in a symposium on the legacy of Blade Runner. This continues our string of articles, and gives us a chance to think about a movie we both enjoy and dynamics we both find fascinating. Murphy both interests and frustrates us, identifying some of the most interesting moments of gender and embodiment in the film, but leaving us wanting more analysis and discussion, so be prepared for a bunch of digressions about Blade Runner in general and in gender.Content warning: Though there’s nothing explicit, the discussion as a whole focuses on gendered violence.Topics: Gender, feminism, film, Blade Runner, cyberpunkNext month, we plan to read what might be the first historical study of science fiction as a genre, Pilgrims Through Space and Time by J. O. Bailey.