Real
Humans (Äkta människor) is
a cult Swedish science fiction
show that has had two seasons and hangs in TV purgatory with a third season
written with no indication as to whether that season will get made. I watched
it after watching the first episode of its UK/US remake Humans, which I have
reviewed here. However, I feel that this show has used hubots, the shows AI
robots, to discuss many different avenues of female oppression and male
entitlement that I had to take a break from reviewing films to review the TV
show. It has so many characters and facets that deal with many feminist issues,
though perhaps not always perfectly, I will be discussing different themes and
characters to truly do the show justice.
Objectification,
Sexual Exploitation, and Hubots
Real Humans is set in Sweden, a place
known for its gender equality, oxymoron though that is, and yet it is still a
place that is full of misogynistic people; those who are happy to use others
for their personal gain, as Inger said “We clone them, we dehumanise them so we
can exploit them”. It is written by mostly men, and directed mostly by them
too, and whilst it is full to the brim with misogyny it does at least, I feel,
do so in a way that makes it clear that that behaviour is not okay, that it’s
gross, and that it has consequences.
The Hubots are used to show the ways
in which we dehumanise people, they are treated in a way which Inger points out
is very similar to racism. One of the most common interactions however between
hubots and people, or should I say men, is that of objectification in all of
its forms. Many men are very happy to openly molest hubots, comparing their
body parts to human women’s, they are very ready to use gendered insult against
them, and a range of men seem very quick to rape and sexually assault them.
Though as I point out in my review of Humans it is framed as being an issue
that primarily affects the Hubots yet would indeed still be an issue that women
face as objectification is about power and control over those deemed lesser
rather than about sex or sexual pleasure.
There are a number of female hubots
that experience sexual assault and it is painted as a very common occurrence. Anita,
our hubot protagonist, is sexually assaulted by a group of teenage boys when
walking through an underpass; the boys film them touching her body inappropriately,
joking about touching her and her not caring or objecting before pushing her on
the ground and opening her top to reveal her breasts. It is only stopped when
one of the boys, Kevin, is spotted by his neighbour Tobbe, one of the members
of the show’s main family. Tobias in response beats Kevin with a bat due to his
feelings for Anita which results in no real consequences for either boy’s
actions so both teenagers don’t suffer. Anita is clearly embarrassed and hurt,
trying to hide the fact it happened so as not to cause problems for anyone;
when the family finally find out they are shocked and want to go to the police.
This situation leads me on to another
aspect of the show that deals with sexuality and the hubots. As a world that
loves labelling everything would there are names for those who sympathise with
hubots – hubbies – there are names for those who like to hang out with, or even
dress as, hubots – transhumans, and also there are those who are sexually
attracted to hubots – transhuman sexuals or THS. After inappropriately groping
a silent Anita, after shyly interacting with her and struggling to comes to
terms with how he feels about her we find out that Tobias is a THS. He breaks
down to his father, ashamed and disgusted with his sexual desire as teenage
boys often can be; despite his mother wanting his father to discuss sex and sex
with hubots – as that is not what Anita is for – with Tobbe his Dad, Hans,
struggled and fumbled through doing so. After discovering there was a name for
what Tobbe is feeling they take him to see a therapist, hoping to help him feel
comfortable with how he is. It is unclear whether he feels this way about all
hubots or just about Anita; it is also unclear if is more of a matter of having
trouble socialising and interacting romantically and sexually with human women
as one character suggests which would fit with a sexual encounter he had where
he insulted the girl after.
Though on the darker side of THS is
that it is arguably no different from how men treat other forms of sexual
attraction – they can’t all be as arguably innocent as fumbling, curious
Tobias. We are shown a brothel which is full of female hubots and it is gawdy,
neon, and looks rather seedy; the man behind the counter is wearing a disgustingly
misogynistic top of a female hubot giving oral to a male human, as is evidenced
by the cogs in her head. On top of that the man wearing the top is very open
and proud to show off his top to the character Leo – as it is not necessarily
like men to be shy in their objectification. Leo needs a place to stay to heal,
and – spoilers – charge and so he makes a deal to modify hubots.
The first hubot he modifies is one I
mentioned in the review for Humans; she is a half-naked large breasted hubot
who is clearly used for sex, and her ‘owner’ asks Leo to make her feel pain. He
asks that she gets hurt when he gets rough with her and that she acts scared
too – in their world no hubot feels pain unless they are programmed to. It is
not necessarily presented as being an all too shocking request though it is
unique enough for them to show. Leo’s disgust and horror at being asked to hurt
hubots, nay women, in this way is evident later as we see her standing over the
body of her dead ‘owner’s body. This is also where we meet the first
objectified male hubot in this show, Rick.
Two female characters in this show
have male hubots as boyfriends, though they didn’t necessarily start out as
that. Theresa, who is with Rick – her personal fitness model – has brought him
to Leo to make him better in the bedroom. Leo does this but Theresa does not
realise that it has unforeseen consequences, which I will discuss later. I will
however mention that immediately after this storyline there is also one about
how Theresa and her friend are at a club and their hubots are denied access;
this then leads to them attempting to sue the club for discrimination which
would have potentially given their partners legal human rights. So even the
male hubots that are objectified are simultaneously humanised.
Finally, there are a number of
attempted rapes and sexual assaults. One of those sexual assaults happens to
Beatrice, a man finds her lying and broken and after charging her, discussing
her breasts jokingly to her friend he immediately tells her to open her mouth
and pushes her head towards his penis. However there is an immediate
consequence for this action as Bea bites the end of his penis off. His action is
clearly framed as a wrong one and that she is not there to for men to force
themselves upon.
Anita
Anita deals with many issues that
come with being a female hubot, as I have previously discussed; I also feel
there might be room to discuss the fetishisation of Asian women with Anita
though I feel that as a white feminist I am perhaps not the best person to
address this. However, with Anita I feel it is her relationships with men that
are worth discussing. As we learn she initially had a romantic relationship
with Leo, despite once being his nanny, and she says to him “You were the child
and I was the adult, and then you were the adult and I was the child”; this
line perhaps reflects her role shifting from nurturing to learning about a more
romantic intimacy. This relationship is then reflected with Tobias as she
learns to recognise and embrace her growing and complicated feelings for him;
perhaps put off by his young age but also being aware the problem with assuming
that someone is not mature enough to understand something.
Anita is a very complicated
character, who has a long journey to learn about both her present self and her
past history. Even her name for instance, as we find out, is not really Anita
but Mimi (last episode of season two aside). She is calm, kind and whilst she
perhaps doesn’t fit in with the family straight away when she does she is there
to stay. Even the father who later struggles to accept hubots is someone she
can turn to in a time of need. It is great to have more shows with female
protagonists and brilliant to have women of colour in lead roles too. Moreover Lisette
Pagler, a stage actress, does an incredible job of playing a robotic character
with a complexity that is to be admired.
Inger,
and Mathilda
Inger is the mother of the main
family, she is very different from her Humans counterpart Laura played by
Katherine Parkinson. It takes only an episode or two for her to warm to Anita
and when she does she takes her shopping for a new headband after realising,
despite being a hubot, likes to change it. She is a lawyer who eventually,
after demanding it, gets bigger and more high profile cases. She is competent,
kind, and brilliant but also has her flaws and struggles being a mother,
daughter and wife. She is a complicated and full character and she was a joy to
watch.
Mathilda is very different too from
the daughter in the remake; she is not rebellious, she barely has much of a
disagreement about Anita or hubots in general, and she is actually a good
friend to Anita. She admittedly does not have many storylines to herself as the
show handles many characters both human and hubot alike. One of her storylines
in season two is a relationship with a woman called Betty who introduces us to
those transhumans who like to dress up as hubots, with colourful hair and
eyelashes.
Vera
I can’t do Vera justice without first
pointing out that in the Swedish version Vera looks like this:
She is a model designed to look after
the elderly, she comes equipped with a knowledge of first aid which is
essential later. She is there to look after Lennart, Inger’s father – in fact
she is the reason that their family have Anita as she came free with Vera who
was bought to replace the adorable but malfunctioning Odi. Lennart sees her as
fussy and annoying, always trying to get him to be healthy. Though whilst
Lennart, and the remake, might not accept the show generally accepts that Vera
is there to look out for Lennart’s best interests. As the show goes on she
arguably has more of a character than she is given credit for; despite being a
standard hubot her responses generally have an air of ‘well I’m not happy about
it but if I must’. She also becomes, due to later circumstances, a reprogrammed
robot that is designed to protect children in combat and the actress gives a
stellar performance shouting “Where is my child?” which I promise you is quite
funny coming from Vera who is looking simply for a plastic doll.
Rick and
Theresa
The place where Vera ends up & is
reprogrammed is a human versus hubot paintball place called Hubot Battle Land;
it is manned by criminal Silas, Roger, and innocent hubot Odi who I dare you
not to fall in love with. It is also where we meet the inevitable conclusion of
Rick’s modification. As I have mentioned earlier Rick was Theresa’s boyfriend
who changed after he was modified. He started off as innocent and kind but as
he was changed to be more sexual his masculinity was increased. Now feminists
understand where toxic masculinity ends up. I can’t say I was surprised to see
Rick become more controlling, more aggressive, and more willing to hit on other
women. In fact Rick’s masculinity overdrive lead him to attempt to sexually
assault and perhaps rape a woman he meets in the mall, though luckily his
batteries die before he gets very far. It is this behaviour that leads Theresa
to get rid of him and replace him with a more docile model.
After he is sold we later meet him
when he is resold again due to his problematic behaviour. He very quickly
becomes a problem in Hubot land as he turns against Roger. Roger is Theresa’s
abusive ex who the show perhaps was too kind to; when he became involved with a
very violent man he in turn became the sane one when in fact violent men who
befriend other violent men usually end up both confirming each other’s toxic
beliefs about violence – that it is in fact the answer to their problems.
Though I think ultimately Roger is a character who is more pathetic than
anything else, struggling to be an employee, a father, and a partner. It is
Roger’s behaviour that makes Rick nickname all humans Roger (pronounced
Roh-gger in a gravelly voice from Rick). Rick’s downward spiral is one of the
most interesting parts of the show – though he remains a morally complicated
character, one second defending a female hubot from rape, questioning if the
man has heard of the Geneva Convention whilst the next second threatening to
hang a woman – though I think it is one the remake won’t touch as fully because
it does not quite perhaps fit the tone they are going for.
Beatrice,
Niska and Marylyn
Beatrice & Niska are both female
hubots and they are also both violent; I find it a shame that one of the key
distinctions that makes hubots more human like is murder. Both have a mission
and they are ruthless in their pursuit of it. I have spoken before in other
pieces about women and violence; it is a difficult subject though I do think that
if we are truly to move forward in this world and to separate ourselves from
men women should strive to stay away from violence and murder and other such
cruelties. Men commit the vast majority of all violence crime and sexual crimes
against women, and yes men and children too, and the propensity to commit such
crimes is not a way in which women would like to be equal to men.
Marylyn is a curious character. For
the entire first season, unless I am mistaken, I am sure she did not talk the
entire time. I was not sure as to why, whether it was something about her
design or her role but I think perhaps, I could be mistaken, that it was more a
part on the writers that they forgot to give her a storyline, or emotions, or dialogue.
It’s worth mentioning, unfortunately that Marylyn is a black hubot. Her only
time to speak and her only storyline is at the start of season two where she
realises her eyes are too green and so changes them at a machine that infects
her with a virus which quickly leads to her demise. It was a sadly short end
for a character we never really got to explore and I hope there was a reason
that she never got lines or a storyline beyond the fact that she was a black,
female hubot.
Eva and Åsa
In season one as the liberated hubots
– Niska and co – are hiding out in a church they meet the female priest Åsa. She
is very understanding about the hubots meaning no harm, she is quick to defend
them, and to try and accommodate them in her church attic; she even helps
Gordon, a hubot, find God through the bible and discussion. She is met however
with distaste from the next character I will discuss, Flash (yes Flash and
Gordon are related hubots). Åsa is married to Eva, someone who is not quite as
understanding and trustful of Hubots; this distrust is confirmed after Flash
calls her a ‘homo freak’ – it is a sad statement, quickly pointed out as wrong,
from a hubot who simply sees women as made to be mothers. Åsa tries to help her
see how she should not judge, just as she does not judge her. There may even be
more to Åsa if a later statement in season two was meant to mean that she is a
hubot too – which would explain her ease with other hubots. It is always great
to see lesbians on television, and I feel they were represented in a real, non-sexualised
manner as complex women; though unfortunately they do not stay together due to
differences in their beliefs about hubots. I fervently hope that these two
characters arrive in the remake, and it will be unacceptable if they are
completely erased as this happens to lesbians in all sorts of media on an
ashamedly regularly basis.
Flash
Flash (ah-ah), later Florentine, is a
female hubot played by a former Miss Sweden. We later learn that her model is
an imported one not available in Sweden, and that she is designed to be a
nanny; whilst she was liberated – set free from her programming by code – I feel
that need to look after children still remains. Her first storyline is that she
wants to be a mother and a wife, she wants to marry a human and live happily ever
after. She is not happy being told what to do by Niska and though it means
leaving her brother Gordon she leaves on her own. She hides that she is a hubot
and finds a way to attend parties for well to do men to find her a husband.
There she meets a man who after struggling initially with eventually learning
she is a hubot marries her. This marriage is fraught with issues over should a
human be able to marry a hubot, can a hubot really love, and in the end Åsa the
lesbian priest is the one who marries them. She is very disproving of a woman
she met before she got married, questioning why she poisons herself with drugs
whilst she has a baby to look after, and she later gets involved in a custody
battle to be the mother of that child (it’s a whole thing). But what is most
important about Flash as time goes on is that she gets what the liberate hubots
truly wanted: to be free. She, along with Anita, is granted the rights of
citizenship that being human entails – though it ultimately leads to her losing
custody of a child she loved but tried to buy. Flash was a character who never
saw herself as a hubot and whilst many of her actions where questionable her
love was real and her desire to be seen as human is one that even many humans
to this day feel.
The Difference
Between Man and Woman
It is a point I won’t stop making
that, under patriarchy, men and women are conditioned and socialised to be
different. We are taught to be different things, to want different things, and
to be certain things despite what we actually feel and are. It is not
surprising in a world that has a strict gender hierarchy that we wouldn’t enforce
that same gender onto ultimately gender and sexless robots. It is also not
surprising that in a world with this gender hierarchy still existing that these
female hubots would be subject to the same sexual violence, other violence, objectification,
denigration, and general exploitation that women currently face. Whilst I
disagree that it is one that belongs in science fiction – where we can create
any future we please, and that it is limiting to female characters to always
give them storylines that focus on their status as woman I am least glad that
the writers understand the things women suffer through. Though it was not done
perfectly I hope it at least helped some women and men who are watching
understand issues they were perhaps naïve on; television can be a great
teaching tool that is not always used to the extent that it should be but Real
Humans is a very good start. It can be used to help teenage boys understand
sexuality and how not to treat women, as well as teaching grown men not to
abuse women and that violence has very real and unwelcome consequences. It is a
great show and one I hope that the remake does not continue to ruin, it has
many subtleties and issues that television would be smart to handle well.
Real Humans is a show I have thoroughly
enjoyed watching, and whilst it can be exhausting to watch, even well
intentioned, depictions of a wide range of misogyny and toxic masculinity and
male entitlement, I definitely recommend that people watch this show and enjoy
the wide range of diverse characters and some truly great, and surprisingly
original, science fiction.
No comments:
Post a Comment