Analysis reveals how Cinder portrays a cyborg protagonist, indicating complexities of power and gender roles.
A complex blend of both biological and mechanical parts, the cyborg stands as a symbol for posthumanist philosophies. Originally conceived by Donna Haraway in her essay “A Cyborg Manifesto” (1985), the cyborg offers a critique of the dualistic humanist power structure and marks a shift towards a new posthuman ontology. As such, texts for young adults have the potential to unsettle the boundaries between human and non-human. Marissa Meyer’s Cinder (2012), a retelling of the fairytale Cinderella, presents teen readers with a relatable cyborg protagonist, Cinder, whose narration highlights oppression within her own fictional world and consequently reveals current inequalities within our own society. However, Cinder’s representation of heteronormative gender roles reveals that even texts that feature posthuman cyborg protagonists may inadvertently perpetuate the traditional power imbalance between the fairytale prince and the damsel in distress.
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Zozie Brown (2025) studied this question.
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