Electronic Eros

Robocop is distinguished by his large size and physical power even though technology has "become smaller and more passive since the industrial machines that inspired the idea of the robot."(102).
             Even though Robocop gives the impression that he is a violent cyborg, not all audiences see it that way. Some people relate muscle-bound cyborgs in films to muscular comic-book super heroes, and like these super heroes, "their erotic appeal is in the promise of power they embody."(99) The male body in a cyborg may be undermined by a sequence or narrative that interferes to make him seem like a suspect or criminal. Thus, the intensified physicality of cinematic cyborgs ends up not in sexual expression but in brute force. The fear in machines also plays an important role in violence. In films such as Robocop, male cyborgs were often huge, loud, and they thrust, pumped, and turned with an aggressive persistence. The scenes where Robocop hurled a burglar out of a glass window and where he punched through a wall are clear examples of his strength and power.
             Gender is a significant factor in the cycle of evolving technology. Robocop and the Terminator smashed their way into the public's awareness in a series of highly successful films, thus giving the impression that most elite, powerful cyborgs (or machines) are masculine, muscle-bound males. However, in the movie Eve of Destruction, the stereotypical cyborg gender changed: its cyborg is a woman. Eve 8, the cyborg in Eve of Destruction, is a machine combined with high-tech devices with genetically engineered organic parts and most importantly, a human's psychological makeup. There are several differences between Eve 8 and her counterpart, Robocop. One major difference is that Eve 8 is "programmed with the thoughts, feelings, and memories of scientist Eve Simmons,"(114) rather than Robocop, having to discover his feelings and memories through time and experience.