fembot

English

Etymology

Blend of female +‎ -bot. Coined by screenwriters Arthur Rowe and Oliver Crawford in the television series The Bionic Woman (1976–1978), specifically in "Kill Oscar" (season 2, episode 5) first broadcast on October 27, 1976.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈfɛmbɒt/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈfɛmbɑt/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɒt
• Hyphenation: fem‧bot

Noun

fembot (plural fembots)

1. (science fiction) A robot in female or feminine form.

   Synonyms: gynoid, robotess

   • 1976 October 27, Arthur Rowe, Oliver Crawford, Kill Oscar (The Bionic Woman), season 2, episode 5, spoken by Dr. Franklin (John Houseman):

     Yes, the girl is valuable. But, my fembots can do anything she can.

   • 1997, Mike Myers, Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery, spoken by Frau Farbissina (Mindy Sterling):

     Jawohl, Herr Doktor. I have created the ultimate weapon to defeat Austin Powers. Send in the fembots!

   • 2003, Jyanni Steffensen, “Doing It Digitally: Rosalind Brodsky and the Art of Virtual Female Subjectivity”, in Reload: Rethinking Women + Cyberculture‎^[1], The MIT Press, →ISBN, page 218:

     The body of Eve 8, the fembot, represents both steely industrial strength and the mysteries of microelectronic circuitry.

   • For more quotations using this term, see Citations:fembot.
   1. (specifically) A female sexbot.
2. (derogatory) A docile, unthinking and conformist woman.

   Synonym: Stepford

   • 1996, Melissa Raphael, Thealogy and Embodiment: The Post-Patriarchal Reconstruction of Female Sacrality‎^[2], Sheffield Academic Press, →ISBN, page 61:

     [...] patriarchal socialization works to sap, stunt and tame this energy, leaving successfully adapted women as little more than 'fembots' or 'feminized artifacts' who have become the products and commodities of patriarchal 'necrophilic' sexual fantasy.

   • 2003, Donna Haraway, The Haraway Reader‎^[3], Routledge, →ISBN, page 3:

     Too many people, forgetting the discipline of love and rage, have read the "Manifesto" as the ramblings of a blissed-out, technobunny, fembot.

Translations

robot in female form

• Esperanto: robotino
• Finnish: gynoidi (fi)
• French: gynoïde (fr) f, robote (fr) f
• Marathi: फेमबॉट f (phembŏṭ)

See also

• femboy