CONSTRUCTING THE FRAGMENTED IDENTITY IN HER: A CINEMATIC DEPICTION OF RESISTANCE TO GENDER NORMS WITHIN POPULAR CULTURE

This study examines the 2013 film Her (Annapurna Pictures) as an example of the impact that modern forms of surveillance have on human identity. The film shows textual evidence within both its narrative and elements of mis-en-scene that characters within popular culture films resist gender norms promoted and enforced by broad surveilling power structures within less surveilled social spaces through the construction of a fragmented identity: First, by portraying intimacy between a human and a cyborg as normal; second, by depicting a human protagonist ‘ungirl’ trope who constructs identities unique to the multiple less surveilled social spaces that he navigates within the film; and finally by depicting human resistance to hegemonic forms of masculinity promoted and enforced by modern forms of surveillance such as cyborgs as the construction of a fragmented identity. The film’s cinematic depiction of the human social condition impacted by Big Data exemplifies a critical representation of the human resistance to gender norms through the construction of a fragmented identity. In particular, Her contributes to the potential of mixed genre science fiction films to challenge gender norms promoted and enforced by technologies created and deployed by broad surveilling authorities like companies who collect and manipulate human data.