Damage

Maria crashes damaged into a turbine fan

Damage to a fembot is one of the things that can reveal her not to be human. Damage can take many forms and degrees of severity. It can be superficial, such as a scratch or a rip in the skin, or it can be worse - up to the total destruction of the fembot.

In fiction

In movies and television shows, damage to a fembot is often the plot device used to reveal her artificiality to the audience.

In the pilot of Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, Cameron suffers multiple gunshot wounds. Her endoskeleton is revealed near her collarbone as she removes the bullets.

During the climax of Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines, the T-X is stripped of some of her polymimetic coating when she is trapped by a massive electromagnet. Later, she is completely bisected when a helicopter is crashed into her. Her upper body continues to crawl across the hangar, intent on completing her mission, until she is finally destroyed.

In the horror movie Jason X, Kay-em 14 is decapitated by the mighty slasher. This injury is not as grievous as one might expect; for the remainder of the movie her disembodied head looks around, makes wisecracks, and controls computer systems.