Smith Susan
Med Humanit. 2016 Dec;42(4):259-264. doi: 10.1136/medhum-2016-010963. Epub 2016 Aug 29.
Early last year, a non-profit organisation called 'Limbitless Solutions' modelled a 3D printed prosthetic arm on a fighting suit that features in the popular superhero film series, Iron Man (2008-2013). In addition, 'Limbitless Solutions' resourcefully deployed the fictional character and inventor of the Iron Man suit, weapons specialist and philanthropist, Tony Stark, played by Robert Downey Jr, in a celebrity/superhero endorsed promotional short film, showing 'Tony', the 'real Iron Man', gifting the futuristic military styled 'gauntlet' to Alex, a 7-year-old boy with a partially developed right arm. Engaging with scholarly work on the science fiction of technoscience, prostheses and the posthuman, and disability and DIY assistive technology, I analyse 'Limbitless Solutions' use of science fiction in a high-profile media event that problematically portrays an impaired child 'in need' of 'repair' and subsequently 'fixed' by technology. Overall, the aim is to integrate science fiction tropes, such as the wounded hero, the fighting suit and prosthetic arm, with disability studies, to highlight the sustained challenges that emerging theories of disability and technology face as contemporary economic, political and ideological forces endorse and promote militarised images of cyborg assimilation over human variation and physical difference.
去年年初，一个名为“无极限解决方案”的非营利组织以热门超级英雄电影系列《钢铁侠》（2008 - 2013）中出现的战斗服为蓝本，3D打印了一只假肢手臂。此外，“无极限解决方案”巧妙地利用了钢铁侠战衣的虚构角色及发明者、武器专家兼慈善家托尼·斯塔克（由小罗伯特·唐尼饰演），制作了一部由名人/超级英雄代言的宣传短片，片中展现了“真正的钢铁侠”“托尼”将具有未来军事风格的“手套”送给亚历克斯的场景，亚历克斯是一名右臂发育不全的7岁男孩。结合关于技术科学、假肢与后人类的科幻小说，以及残疾与DIY辅助技术的学术著作，我分析了“无极限解决方案”在一场备受瞩目的媒体活动中对科幻小说的运用，该活动存在问题地描绘了一个“需要”“修复”并随后由技术“治愈”的残疾儿童。总体而言，目的是将诸如受伤英雄、战斗服和假肢手臂等科幻小说元素与残疾研究相结合，以突出残疾与技术的新兴理论所面临的持续挑战，因为当代经济、政治和意识形态力量支持并推广半机械人同化的军事化形象，而非人类的多样性和身体差异。
