Frankenstein as a modern cyborg?The creature ("demon") created by Victor Frankenstein in Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, or The Modern Prometheus, occupies a space that is neither entirely male nor entirely female, although both are clearly created as male and wish to fill a male role. Judith Halberstam describes this middle ground as one of the main characteristics of the Gothic monster: being in a space that is not easily classified or categorized, and therefore rendered incomprehensible and monstrous. Donna J. Haraway posits that the cyborg of postmodern science fiction occupies a similar in-between space, or, perhaps, a non-space. Similarly, Cathy Griggs argues that the postmodern lesbian is tied to this notion of the cyborg. The lesbian is made monstrous in social discourse by her desire to ascend to phallic privilege, linking this middle ground as both a monstrous and a cybernetic trait. Furthermore, the transgender (female to male) man occupies a similar discursive space and provides us with a postmodern connection to Frankenstein's creature, as both are surgically constructed men, a construction that, in the eyes of society, makes them monstrous. (particularly for trans men who cannot pass). Frankenstein's creature embodies gender transgression on two levels, both fueling Victor's horror: the first is the creature's status as a surgically constructed male, the second is Victor's own gender transgression in co-opting the feminine trait of reproduction , transforming his laboratory into a virtual womb. Given the creature's scientific origin, as well as its and Victor's unstable gender, it's possible that the modern gothic monster is pre-fi...... middle of paper ......th. Gender issues: feminism and identity subversion. New York: Routledge, 1990. Griggers, Cathy. “Lesbian Bodies in the Age of (Post)Mechanical Reproduction.” Fear of a strange planet. Ed. Michael Warner. Minneapolis: U of Minnesota P, 1993. 178-192.Halberstam, Judith. Skin Shows: Gothic Horror and Monster Tech. Second ed. Durham: Duke UP, 1995. Haraway, Donna J. “The Promises of Monsters: A Regenerative Politics for Inappropriate Others.” Cultural studies. Eds. Lawrence Grossberg, Cary Nelson, and Paula A. Treichler. New York: Routledge, 1992. 295-337.Haraway, Donna J. Simians, Cyborgs and Women: The Reinvention of Nature. New York: Routledge, 1991. Shelley, Mary. Frankenstein or the modern Prometheus. 1983 ed. New York: The Penguin Group, 1963. Zizek, Slavoj. The sublime object of ideology. London: Verso, 1989.