The Imperium of Man is an explicitly eugenic state, pursing its obsessive campaign of purifying humanity at all costs. Both those with conventional disabilities and the crip-coded psykers and mutants are routinely either purged from the gene pool or are “cured” through super-science that erase disability as an identity category, including via the elimination of disabled bodyminds through the reconstruction of “flawed” bodies into other forms, with only the rare few like of the Space Marine Dreadnoughts and Mechanicus cortical imprints even permitted to retain sentience. While elite and voluntary cyborgs are included in the form of the Tech-Priesthood with their intentionally inhuman, bespoke augmetics and the sacred, perfected abominations of the Space Marine Chapters, Warhammer’s cyborg state is primarily one of ableist oppression. In this, it recreates the flaws of Donna Haraway’s “Manifesto for Cyborgs” in the dehumanization, erasure, and tokenizing of disabled people even as the cyborg state is idealized and pursued throughout the God-Emperor’s demesne. These figures reify rather than destabilize the Saussurian power dyads, unlike effective critical monsters, and they embrace their military-industrial fathers rather than challenging or undermining the patriarchal power fantasy. While the official canon treats its characters and factions with ironic distance, it cannot escape the satirical trap of reinscribing the very attitudes it seeks to critique through its reproduction of targeted material. Here Alison Kafer’s crip reading of Haraway offers valuable insight into the ways in its monsterization those who fail to match the “purity” creed of its fictional future serves to guide audiences against the disabled Other within our real world. However, Alison Kafer’s crip critique of Haraway’s cyborg provides a guide forward in resisting the ableism of the Warhammer 40k universe, offering potent counter-readings through reengagement with the cyborg, and offering provocative opportunities for resistance without rejecting the material entirely.
Author bio
Dr. Catherine (Katya) Vrtis is an independent scholar of Theatre and Performance Studies, focusing on the dynamics of de/humanization in the cultural discourse of freakery and monstrosity. Recent work appears in Monsters in Performance, Freak Inheritance, and Theatre History Studies. They also lead multiple disability justice projects in their field.
