The term Cyborg was first coined in 1960 when Manfred Clynes and Nathan Kline used it in an article about the advantages of self-regulating human-machine systems in outer space (Wikipedia 2008). Although modern government, medicine and electronics geeks have tried their heart out to create cyborgs, they largely remain a science fiction fantasy. In A Cyborg Manifesto, Haraway states (1985), “The cyborg is a matter of fiction and lived experience that changes what counts as women’s experience in the late 20^th century.” Haraway declares cyborgs as a creature of social reality as well as a creature of fiction. She uses the metaphor of the fusing of machine and organisms in a cyborg to explain how fundamental contradictions in feminist theory and identity  should be fused.

Additionally, Haraway makes the argument that women, like cyborgs, do not require a stable, essentialist identity, and feminists should consider creating coalitions based on "affinity" instead of identity. Furthermore, Haraway refers to the cyborg in order to challenge feminists to engage in a politics beyond naturalism and essentialisms.

References

• D Haraway (1985). A Cyborg Manifesto: Science, Technology, and Socialist-Feminism in the Late Twentieth Century Socialist Review 80:65-108, 1985. Available online via http://www.stanford.edu/dept/HPS/Haraway/CyborgManifesto.html.
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyborg
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donna_Haraway
• http://youtube.com/watch?v=WDUFpPibuMs
• http://youtube.com/watch?v=pGva3yU8RZw