This paper interrogates the representation of women characters in Robert Rodriguez’s 2019 film Alita: Battle Angel. Considering the conflicting traits of female characters, this paper employs Julia Kristeva's theory of Abjection to analyse the characterisation of hyper-gendered and semi-robotic cyborg feminine characters, Alita and Nyssiana, in the film. The study highlights the patterns through which the film genderises artificial intelligence by introducing deformed female characters. It also discusses the implications of artificial intelligence for concepts of subjectivity and humanity and focuses on gender and the positioning of women as commodities in science fiction movies. Drawing on Kristeva's ideas of Abjection, the paper posits that female characters are dehumanised and deformed to the extent that they come across merely as objects of fear and desire.

Keywords: Abjection; Artificial Intelligence; Science Fiction; Gender; Masculinity

Ablett, S. (2014). Approaching Abjection in Sarah Kane’s Blasted. Performance Research: A Journal of the Performing Arts, 19(1), 63–71. https://doi.org/10.1080/13528165.2014.908085

Chanter, T. (2008). The Picture of Abjection: Film, Fetish, and the Nature of Difference. Indiana University Press.

Creed, B. (2022). Return of the Monstrous-Feminine: Feminist New Age Cinema. Routledge.

Halliday, S. (2014). Representations of Gender and Subjectivity in 21st century American Science Fiction Television [Doctoral dissertation, University of East Anglia]. UEA

Digital Repository. https://ueaeprints.uea.ac.uk/id/eprint/51483/1/2014HallidaySPhD.pdf

Haraway, D. J. (1985). A Cyborg Manifesto: Science, Technology, and Socialist-Feminism in the late Twentieth Century. In D. Haraway, & C. Wolfe (Eds.), Manifestly

Haraway (pp. 3-90). University of Minnesota Press. http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.5749/j.ctt1b7x5f6

Kristeva, J. (1982). Powers of Horror: An Essay on Abjection. Columbia University Press.

Mohamed, A., & Ahmed, M. (2024). A New “Mammy” in the Age of Digitalization; Human Insecurity Versus Utopian Affective Algorithms in Kazuo Ishiguro’s Klara and The

Sun. 3L: Language. Linguistics, Literature, 30(1), 24-35. https://ejournal.ukm.my/3l/article/view/67512

Morgan, S., & Morris, F. (1995). Rites of Passage: Art for the End of the Century. Tate Gallery Publications.

Oliveira, R., & Yadollahi, E. (2023). Robots in movies: A content analysis of the portrayal of fictional social robots. Behaviour & Information Technology, 43(5), 970-87.

https://doi.org/10.1080/0144929X.2023.2196576

Richardson, T. (2017). Objectification and Abjectification in Ex Machina and Ghost in the Shell. Retrieved December 7, 2023, from https://medium.com/science-

technoculture-in-film/objectification-and-abjectification-in-ex-machina-and-ghost-in-the-shell-b126b8832a1d

Roberts, R. (1996). ‘No Woman Born’: Immortality and Gender in Feminist Science Fiction. In G. Slusser, G. Westfahl, & E. S. Rabkin (Eds.), Immortal Engines: Life

Extension and Immortality in Science Fiction and Fantasy (pp. 135-44). University of Georgia Press.

Santoni De Sio, F. (2024). Human Freedom in the Age of AI. Routledge.

Suleyman, M., & Bhaskar, M. (2023). The Coming Wave: Technology, Power, and the Twenty-First Centuries Greatest Dilemma. Crown.

Telotte, J. P. (2009). Science Fiction Film. Cambridge University Press.

Tzafestas, S. G. (2015). Roboethics: A Navigating Overview. Springer.

White, A. L. (2004). Reframing the Subject: Abjection in Twentieth-Century American Literature [Doctoral dissertation, The University of Tennessee]. Tennessee Research

and Creative Exchange (TRACE). https://trace.tennessee.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=6286&context=utk_graddiss