I’m SecUnit, my friends call me Murderbot
Protagonists Don’t Need a Gender in All Systems Red
Tags: #AllSystemsRed #Books #Murderbot #Androids #Agender #Gender #Pronouns
Martha Wells’ Murderbot Diaries series follows the unlikely protagonist, SecUnit. The first book, All Systems Red, introduces the reader to a futuristic world, spread across galaxies through the eyes of SecUnit, secretly dubbed Murderbot. Neither entirely organic nor inorganic, SecUnit is a construct, human clone tissue fused with robotic elements to increase strength, durability, and memory storage. The memory storage capacity is important, because unlike others of SecUnit’s kind, Murderbot downloaded hundreds of hours of entertainment after hacking the SecUnit’s internal governor module to prevent another malfunction after an unfortunate mass murder incident. Murderbot continues working as a SecUnit, however, accompanying a team of scientists as a security construct to a distant planet. To note though, “as a heartless killing machine, [Murderbot] was a complete failure” (Wells 2017).
All Systems Red is entirely written in first person from Murderbot’s perspective. Murderbot is neither given a gender nor a sexuality throughout the story and is mostly referred to as SecUnit. On occasion, humans around SecUnits refer to Murderbot, and other SecUnits, as ‘it’ or - if Murderbot is without a helmet - as ‘who’. Murderbot does not want a gender; Murderbot is offered the chance later in the series to be given sex organs and vehemently refuses. Murderbot also does not want a sexual identity as it often skips over sex scenes in the media shows - citing them as boring.
As we previously discussed in this article, characters in all forms of popular culture display various traits that have been linked to preconceived notions of masculinity, femininity, and gender roles. For example, women are often framed as caregivers, passive, and empathetic. Men, on the other hand, are frequently associated with assertiveness, violence, and leadership. Murderbot is no exception; however, Murderbot inhibits both stereotypical masculine and feminine traits throughout the story.
Murderbot’s Feminities
The majority of Murderbot’s time is spent watching The Rise and Fall of Sanctuary Moon, a soap opera with hundreds of episodes. Soap operas are traditionally targeted towards women – particularly mothers and housewives – who spend a considerable time at home during the day (e.g. Herzog 1941; Geraghty 1991). Women also (still) make up the majority of soap opera viewers (e.g. Lindsey 1979; Lewis 2015). Consequently, we have seen that soap operas have a long cultural history of being considered feminine and part of ‘women’s culture’. This is for a few reasons: soap operas are typically seen as emotional and focusing on relationships; they are considered ‘gossipy’; and they have been observed to be escapist and provide release from everyday life. Moreover, early cultural studies showed how women organized their cultural experiences in the ‘private sphere’ (i.e. at home) and negotiated cultural meaning through artifacts such as soap operas (e.g. Herzog 1941; Geraghty, 1991; McRobbie 1991; Abbot, Wallace and Tyler 2005). Murderbot, being a construct, often uses The Rise and Fall of Sanctuary Moon to contextualize interactions with humans, relating plot points and scenes between the characters to Murderbot’s humans’ reactions to situations.
Murderbot is also capable of empathy, especially in a crisis. We are introduced to Murderbot just before an aggressive alien fauna attacks two of the PreservationAux team members Murderbot was supposed to be guarding. Murderbot rescues Bharadwaj and Volescu from the giant fauna, and offers emotional support while they retreat from the fauna’s hunting ground. This is entirely done without direction as “the MedSystem was prioritizing Bharadwaj” (Wells 2017) and did not instruct Murderbot on how to deal with Valescu going into shock. Empathy is a trait most associated with women and how they are socialized to be more caring (e.g. Jordan, Survey and Kaplan 1983). During times of crisis, empathy can build trust and connection in a community. Often, displaying empathy is a key indicator of trust in women leaders (e.g. Tatum, Thompson and Yates 2022). That Murderbot would react with empathy when in an emergency situation and without explicit instruction to do so, indicates that it is either an intrinsic trait or engrained so deeply into Murderbot through medical training that it effectively makes no difference.
While Murderbot might claim that “[Murderbot doesn’t] care much about who [Murderbot’s] clients are or what they’re trying to accomplish” (Wells 2017), Murderbot does go to great lengths to keep these clients alive; evidently having formed some form of attachment to this group of humans. Looking after one group of humans or another for longer than Murderbot can remember (see previous mass murder incident), Murderbot has been conditioned into caretaking, similar to how women are socialized into being carers of other humans (e.g. MacRae 2008). Murderbot travels with the PreservationAux team to visit the other survey group, DeltFall, after they stop responding to communication attempts. Upon arrival, after discovering that the other SecUnits had been hacked, Murderbot claims SecUnits are not sentimental about each other. Yet, in the climactic confrontation with the evil GrayCris survey group, Murderbot must kill one of the remaining DeltFall SecUnits and wishes it was not DeltFall; “it was in there somewhere, trapped in its own head, maybe aware, maybe not” (Wells 2017).
Murderbot is self proclaimed awkward; “[i]t’s not paranoia about [Murderbot’s] hacked governor module, and it’s not them; it’s [Murderbot]” (Wells 2017). Women tend to be more likely to internalize similar anxious or ‘negative’ emotions (e.g. Chaplin 2015). Murderbot clearly struggles with social anxiety, if not other forms of anxiety, despite not having the terminology to express such feelings. Quite often, Murderbot references how uncomfortable talking with humans is; “[b]ut they didn’t want to talk to [Murderbot] and [Murderbot] definitely did not want to talk to them; on duty it would distract [Murderbot] and off duty…[Murderbot] didn’t want to talk to them” (Wells 2017). Several times, talking to the PreservationAux team about feelings or self-autonomy causes Murderbot’s efficiency to drop. These drops in efficiency are mostly related to speaking with humans or other social situations. Therefore, similar to the ways women are being depicted as awkward, nervous, and shy in popular culture, Murderbot, too, displays these feminine-coded traits.
Murderbot’s sole purpose on the team is to serve the humans. Murderbot is practically an object, merely furniture that accompanies humans on missions to be used when context necessitates Murderbot’s usefulness. At the same time, Murderbot remains replaceable and easily discarded for a new model. In All Systems Red, “[h]uman clients like to pretend [Murderbot’s] a robot” (Wells 2017) and “90 percent of [SecUnits’] bodies can be regrown” (Wells 2017) or get simply replaced. This replaceability and objectification is a trait shared with women across mediums which we have already addressed in several past articles (including TLOU, Dishonored, the Addams Family, and Ghibli). More specifically, young women and girls are often socialized to servicing men, reducing their existence to objects in both private and public spaces (e.g. Abbot, Wallace and Tyler 2005). While Murderbot is there to serve humans and not only men, the subjugation of SecUnits as a lesser being is the same. In this way, Murderbot is quite literally built for servitude.
Murderbot’s Masculinities
All of this is to say, Murderbot exhibits several traits and emotions that are mostly associated with feminine-coded characters. At the same time, there is also evidence of stereotypical masculine traits. Murderbot experiences characteristics that are best described in relation to hegemonic masculinity; a concept we have already discussed in our recent Allan article (see also e.g. Connell 2005).
Most notably, Murderbot associates Murderbot’s identity with the violence Murderbot is capable of inflicting, though the humans more often use SecUnit when speaking with Murderbot. As a construct, Murderbot is a Security Unit, designed for defense purposes. Murderbot is programmed to respond to dangers by using violence, similar to the ways men are taught to engage with violent acts for conflict resolution (e.g. Connell 2005, hooks 2004, Parrot and Zeichner 2008). SecUnits are meant to fight by “[throwing themselves] at each other and see whose parts give out first” (Wells 2017); their only goal being to do as much damage to one another as they can in the timeframe they have. As previously mentioned, Murderbot experienced a malfunction when a spot of corporate espionage went awry and Murderbot’s governor module crashed, causing it to kill 57 people.
As opposed to empathy, Murderbot also experiences mood swings into moments of apathy. Muderbot did not bother to check where the survey was taking place in the galaxy. Murderbot did not read the info packet that was included in the initial download for the survey, and does not know who the PreservationAux team is. Men are often conditioned to believe that showing emotion is a weakness, except for anger, which is the only acceptable emotion for a man (e.g. Jakupcak, Tull and Roemer 2005; Connell 2005). Instead of dealing with some of the more complex emotions, Murderbot is “hit by a wave of I don’t care” (Wells 2017) and goes along with the flow of what the PreservationAux team is requesting or planning.
Similarly, showing pain is also considered a weakness and, therefore, ‘unmanly’ (e.g. Oransky and Marecek 2009). For Murderbot, this is exemplified when Murderbot is injured in the fight with the giant fauna and starts leaking fluids. As Murderbot can turn Murderbot’s pain receptors up and down; when in combat situations, Murderbot can reduce any pain caused by injuries to continue throwing Murderbot’s body at the problem. So it is not until the team returns to the habitat that Murderbot realizes how much damage was done. When getting ready to start the repair process, Murderbot is interrupted by Mensah, much to the dissatisfaction of Murderbot; “Seriously, [Murderbot doesn’t] know why [Murderbot didn’t] just say you’re welcome and please get out of my cubicle so I can sit here and leak in peace” (Wells 2017). Throughout the entire series, Murderbot comments on how much Murderbot does not enjoy leaking or showing any signs of injury.
Another trait most often associated with masculine coding is a lack of communication skills. Men are socialized to be less communicative and are represented more as silent and stoic in media (e.g. Taylor and Curtis 2023, Connell 2005). Murderbot often relies on the full face helmet and armor Murderbot wears to avoid interacting with humans; “[k]eeping the armor on all the time cuts down on unnecessary interaction” (Wells 2017). In fact, Murderbot finds the PreservationAux team “fairly restful to be around, as long as they didn’t try to talk or interact with [Murderbot] in any way” (Wells 2017). Instead of valuing socializing and companionship, Murderbot prefers solitude and Sanctuary Moon.
Murderbot Doesn’t Need a Gender
Martha Wells’ All Systems Red explores the complexities of identity through the lens of an atypical protagonist. Clearly, SecUnits were built to provide a service, yet, our protagonist experiences a tension between Murderbot’s desire for solitude and duty to support humans. Murderbot does not see SecUnits as more feminine or masculine, but as a construct. In the broader context of popular culture, Murderbot stands as a unique and completing character that defies simplistic gender categorisations and invites the reader to question societal norms. Murderbot's journey not only entertains but also serves as a thought-provoking exploration of gender, autonomy, and the intricacies of being human — or in Murderbot's case, a construct on a quest for self-discovery.
Sources
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Image Credit
The Broken Binding Bookstore [@binding_broken] (2021). "GIVEAWAY : We consider ourselves very lucky to have signed bookplate editions of this book! Murderbot is a character like no other ! Please RT and Follow for a chance to win a signed bookplate edition of 'All Systems Red' by the incredible @marthawells1!" 14 May, https://x.com/binding_broken/status/1393298951785394180?s=20