Ex Machina is a 2014 science fiction movie written and directed by Alex Garland. The film follows a tech billionaire, Nathan who brings in Caleb, who is a programmer, to his home situated in the middle of a forest. Caleb pursues this adventure after winning a week-long retreat to his boss who instructs and assigns him the responsibility of interacting with a female robot named, Ava to find out if she has the capability of self-awareness or it is just an absurd simulation. As a human component of Nathan’s Turing test of a robot, Caleb develops a close relationship with Ava, and as time passes by he begins to learn Nathan’s hidden agendas, and his darker sides with how he treats Ava and his assistant, Kioko who he later finds out is a robot too. This film revolves around many themes such as artificial intelligence, technology getting out of control, and gender. This essay examines the idea of gender and how male-dominated societies, as well as biology, construct the identities of males and females.

This movie demonstrates great interest in the organization of society through its form and content and how gender roles are constructed and handed down for a thousand years. It is well known that almost all cultures believe that men are stronger than women and they deserve all the respect therein while the same societies construct females as objects that have no voice and can be tossed around by men. Women in men-dominated societies have no power, and they are used as objects by their male counterparts. In the same way, Ex Machina highlights how gender is constructed in a society dominated by males. Nathan, the CEO of Google-like Corporation, is a well-documented version of male dominance. He rebels against the nerd stereotypes going about drinking to excess and carrying on like an alpha dog. He goes disco dancing with his female robot Kyoko and gets overly jealous when Caleb shows empathy for Ava.

It is bad enough that Nathan wants to play God by creating female robots through artificial flesh. Nathan builds his home in a secluded place (in the middle of the forest) as though it is a kingdom and creates female robots who are his slaves. With his God complex, he is the epitome of a male-dominated society. Even though Ava shows signs of intelligence and self-awareness, he has no intentions of releasing her, for he will never view her as anything other than a machine. Nathan represents a world of males where they see women as window dressing for sales booth. The fact that his robots are all females makes a meaningful sense, primarily functioning as slaves and sex toys. He creates these robots to the extent that Ava has a “hole”- his word- and in the right place, it shows a feminine appearance that exists to massage male egos (Garland,00: 46:49). Nathan’s treatment of objectifying robots is a metaphor for the way society treats women as objects, and it is from this perspective that Nathan created his robots.

Nonetheless, neither of the male characters; Nathan or Caleb comes off very well. Nathan is a user and a bastard who makes excuses about sexuality as a necessity for consciousness.  For instance, when Caleb asks Nathan, “Did you give Ava sexuality as her diversion” he replies by saying if humans did not have sex then they will not have the ability to communicate (Garland, 00:46:20). Nathan gives excuses for why he created a female robot and not a male. But the fact that he built his robots to look like hot naked women questions his indulging sexuality. His is messed, trying to create consciousness but all with the intention of using them as sex toys especially from the perspective that he represents their father. Caleb, on the other hand, even though he seems a nice guy, he still reacted to Ava and the feelings she evoked in him. Later in the film, Nathan reveals that he did not just choose Caleb randomly as the winner, but for the fact that he liked watching porn and his internet preferences were useful for aiding in the creation of Ava (Garland 00:54:32)). Thus, Caleb was the first human contact that would prove if Ava responds to sexual desires and she could only hurt and manipulate Caleb.

Also, the film uses forms such as lighting and setting to demonstrate the theme of gender and how societies construct women. When Caleb begins his Turing test, Ava emerges from a dark room that is secluded, and the audience can make to realize first the LEDs of her mechanical body (Garland 00:12:15). This image establishes Ava as non-human, and the interview that follows with Caleb brings the audience to the light of Ava as a robot. Caleb treats her as an object, something lacking life and inferior; the same society represents women. Also, the setting is in a secluded part of the world, in the middle of a forest where it is difficult for one to escape. Later on, as the film develops, there are skeletons of female robots strung up in a cabinet and deactivated. Since Nathan views them as non-human, he has solely desensitized from them and perceived them as machines. This scenario reveals an excellent example of women trapped in a male-controlled society, that their male counterparts are only using them for their satisfaction.

Ava, who is the center of this film, is another representation of gender construction of males and females. Ava represents a damsel who is in dire sorrow and wants to escape the confine of her father, Nathan. When Nathan creates Ava, she has to undergo a series of Turing tests with Caleb to examine her self-awareness ability and intelligence. Nathan reveals that the ultimate test of it all was to determine if Ava is capable of escaping the facility using the available resources. He states, “Ava is like a rat in a maze, and to escape all these, she will have to utilize sexuality, manipulation, self-awareness, and imagination,” and she did manage to manipulate Caleb and flirt with him until she was ready to go. But even so, Nathan would not let her; he still viewed her as his machine and sex toy.

While Ava is at Nathan’s confinement, her gender- sexuality and femininity-is her only tool at her disposal. Nathan created her for sexualized purposes as he tells Caleb, “You bet she can have intercourse, in between her legs there is an opening for that purpose, and if you engage her the right way, it will create a response filled with pleasure. So if you would like to screw her, you could mechanically, and she will enjoy it (Garland 00:46:47).” So, to escape her confinement, Ava has to utilize her sexuality, and that is why she flirts with Caleb and manipulates him into thinking that she loves him for him to have empathy. She also uses media to complete her seduction of Caleb and the audience with her body language as well as her personality and voice. This representation of Ava is a clear representation of what women go through to escape from their parents, men, and society.

In summary, for a woman to find their place in society and find a voice they have to utilize their sexuality and manipulation skills to get out just like Ava. This escape is the ultimate male fear; a woman who fights to get her independence. The way Ava transcended from a naïve robot to a fully formed individual with intelligence capable of finding freedom and happiness is a symbolic representation of how antique women transition from being the properties of their fathers and husbands to enlightened women who are free, autonomous, and equal. Ava could not find her autonomy because she was confined and condensed to the demands of two men; Nathan and Caleb, but she was able to establish herself as a fully-formed woman capable of the pursuit of her freedom. Ex Machina masterfully injects this theme of gender and how male-dominated societies construct women and men through the characters of Nathan, Caleb, and Ava. The male egos of Nathan and Caleb triggers facilitate Ava’s escape as she steps out to experience a world she never knew like a successful human being.

Work Cited

Garland, Alex. Ex Machina. Film 4 Productions, 2015.

 
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