Cyberfeminism vs. Afrofuturistfeminism

There are differences and sameness on some accounts within cyberfeminism versus afrofuturistfeminism, I’ll quickly list the basics.

Cyber Feminists and Afrofuturist Feminists agree that Western Marxist/socialist/radical feminism, rooted in class conflict and gender roles to create a naturalize unity amongst women left no room in their structure for race, therefore for decades othering the Black body within feminism.

In an effort to keep this portion short since most futurist feminists are familiar with Donna Haraway’s “A Cyborg Manifesto,” cyber feminism is rooted in science/machine/technology/genderlessness; it sees Science Fiction as post-modernist and the group’s main framework is dependent on the binaries of White Capitalist Patriarchy versus Informatics of Domination. It imagines a utopian world without an origin and negates gender.

Afrofuturist Feminism is rooted in ethnicity and gender; understanding their African Diasporian continuum, the group sees their supernatural ambiguity to shape-shift in natural and manifested surroundings as a genealogical code that predates post modern Science Fiction. The group’s main framework is dependent on the binaries of ethnicity and womanhood versus everything that marginalizes and oppresses their group—including technology if necessary—yet, it openly embraces technology as a choice, and not as the final option, to further the African Diasporian continuum.

Afrofuturist Feminists do not negate their history as the group works on a continuum of past, present, future and must utilize the Sankofa principle of “it is not wrong for one to go back and take that which they have forgotten” or “simply go back and take,” therefore, they do not imagine a world without gender nor genesis. Simply put: Afrofuturist Feminists embrace ethnicity with technology, as long as technology doesn’t seek to marginalize the group, they do not need to eradicate the Black or female body nor the history it has witnessed. Utopianism for the group is keeping the Black female body by choice, and the body cohabitates with the world around it without being othered. Note, Afrofuturist Feminists shape-shift so, hybridization, including robotics, etc, may occur, but it’s not a permanent state that solely negates the Black female body.