@article{ART003282722},
author={HEEJUNG NA},
title={Designed Passivity: The Legacy of Female Automata from Ovid’s Metamorphoses to the Current Incel Phenomenon},
journal={Journal of Modern English Drama},
issn={1226-3397},
year={2025},
volume={38},
number={3},
pages={99-131}
TY - JOUR
AU - HEEJUNG NA
TI - Designed Passivity: The Legacy of Female Automata from Ovid’s Metamorphoses to the Current Incel Phenomenon
JO - Journal of Modern English Drama
PY - 2025
VL - 38
IS - 3
PB - 한국현대영미드라마학회
SP - 99
EP - 131
SN - 1226-3397
AB - Writing in the first century AD, Ovid composed his famous work, Metamorphoses. In it he recounts the story of Pygmalion, a sculptor so revolted by the sexual licence of a certain group of women that he decides to remain perpetually celibate and carve his own perfect ivory creation of a woman, who centuries later comes to be known as Galatea. In doing so, Ovid ushered in a two thousand-year literary tradition of male characters creating automata, robots and cyborgs who were not only physically pleasing, but also endowed with a general passivity, and who constantly exhibited obsequious behavior before males. Beginning with an examination of the history of Pygmalion’s legacy through trans-genre narratives such as the medieval Roman de la Rose (1230), E.T.A. Hoffmann’s The Sandman (1816), statuary theater in the Victorian Age, Fritz Lang’s film Metropolis (1927), early science-fiction stories, 20th century comic books, and present-day online gaming robotic characters this paper undertakes to show the effect of this tradition on the minds of modern males and how it has helped lure some into the incel community or “Manosphere” as examined in the Fringe play The Last Incel (2024) and the acclaimed TV drama Adolescence (2025). This paper further suggests that educational programs be developed which can, in non-evasive and non-accusative manners, help young males become aware of the effects of these deeply entrenched cultural influences and guide them from being caught up in the incel snare.
KW - Pygmalion Myth;Ovid’s Metamorphoses;Incel community;;Galatea;Female automata;statuary theater
DO -
UR -
ER -
HEEJUNG NA. (2025). Designed Passivity: The Legacy of Female Automata from Ovid’s Metamorphoses to the Current Incel Phenomenon. Journal of Modern English Drama, 38(3), 99-131.
HEEJUNG NA. 2025, "Designed Passivity: The Legacy of Female Automata from Ovid’s Metamorphoses to the Current Incel Phenomenon", Journal of Modern English Drama, vol.38, no.3 pp.99-131.
HEEJUNG NA "Designed Passivity: The Legacy of Female Automata from Ovid’s Metamorphoses to the Current Incel Phenomenon" Journal of Modern English Drama 38.3 pp.99-131 (2025) : 99.
HEEJUNG NA. Designed Passivity: The Legacy of Female Automata from Ovid’s Metamorphoses to the Current Incel Phenomenon. 2025; 38(3), 99-131.
HEEJUNG NA. "Designed Passivity: The Legacy of Female Automata from Ovid’s Metamorphoses to the Current Incel Phenomenon" Journal of Modern English Drama 38, no.3 (2025) : 99-131.
HEEJUNG NA. Designed Passivity: The Legacy of Female Automata from Ovid’s Metamorphoses to the Current Incel Phenomenon. Journal of Modern English Drama, 38(3), 99-131.
HEEJUNG NA. Designed Passivity: The Legacy of Female Automata from Ovid’s Metamorphoses to the Current Incel Phenomenon. Journal of Modern English Drama. 2025; 38(3) 99-131.
HEEJUNG NA. Designed Passivity: The Legacy of Female Automata from Ovid’s Metamorphoses to the Current Incel Phenomenon. 2025; 38(3), 99-131.
HEEJUNG NA. "Designed Passivity: The Legacy of Female Automata from Ovid’s Metamorphoses to the Current Incel Phenomenon" Journal of Modern English Drama 38, no.3 (2025) : 99-131.
