Cyborg Healthcare in Chi Ta-wei’s ‘The Membranes’: The Queer and Disabled Patient Perspective

Abstract: The Membranes by Chi Ta-wei, an influential speculative fiction novel, demonstrates how healthcare technology can help construct a broader definition of being human that improves quality-of-life for queer and disabled individuals. Set in the dystopian world of 2100, where humanity has been forced to migrate under the ocean due to climate change, the novel follows 30-year-old Momo, a transgender celebrity “dermal care technician” in T City. In a culminating twist, it is revealed that Momo’s life as a dermal care technician is a simulation written by Momo’s mother, and in reality, she was reduced to a brain-in-a-vat after her body could not be salvaged following a severe illness in her youth.

This talk begins by investigating the care ethics of Momo’s mother’s choice to place Momo in a simulation. Using the lens of Baudrillard’s Simulation and Simulacra, I establish how “simulacra” (socially-constructed labels without basis in reality) impact Momo’s positionality as both patient and healthcare provider, drawing the conclusion that her simulated life would be no more “real” (as defined by Baudrillard) had it not been a simulation.

I then explore how aspects of Momo’s simulated life validate her experiences as a queer and disabled patient: Her simulated world is warped to fit her, rather than forcing her to warp herself to fit a societal mold of heteronormativity and ableism. Finally, I argue that, as we forge medical technologies of the future, we must actively reimagine a reality for marginalized patients that transgresses identity simulacra like gender, sexuality, and dis/ability.

Stephanie Larson – English – Case Western Reserve University