Body Technology

by mali holmes

[rethinkbiotech]

We use biotechnologies every day. They can look pretty harmless, but they often have much more meaning than we think. It’s time to start thinking about the complex systems of power that our biotechnologies are a part of.

[rethinkbiotech]

“I’ll have an ethically sourced coffee with a side of happiness.*” 

Ethical coffee isn’t as ethical as you think. In an article in Race, Gender & Class in 2008, Cole pointed out that while it is easy to feel good about drinking coffee that is ethically sourced, feeling good about it can lead to a white savior complex. The poor bodies forced to work on coffee plantations are still forced to work there because of the colonial capitalist system created by global coffee trade. Regardless of the working conditions on coffee plantations, the global coffee trade will not be fully ethical until we can get rid of the structures of power within it.

*Fritsch defined happiness as a good feeling that one gets from an object. Fritsch explained that wheelchairs are “part of a politics of happiness caught up in a capitalist economy of rehabilitation” (139). Fairtrade and ethically sourced coffee function in the same way by bringing us happiness even though the systems of oppression tied to global coffee trade are still thriving.

Sources:

Cole, N. L. (2008). GLOBAL CAPITALISM ORGANIZING KNOWLEDGE OF RACE, GENDER AND CLASS: THE CASE OF SOCIALLY RESPONSIBLE COFFEE. Race, Gender & Class, 15(1), 170-175,177-187. Retrieved from https://login.libproxy.scu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.libproxy.scu.edu/docview/218832537?accountid=13679

Fritsch, K. (2013). The Neoliberal Circulation of Affects: Happiness, accessibility and the capacitation of disability as wheelchair. Health, Culture and Society, 5(1), 135-146. doi:10.5195/hcs.2013.136

[rethinkbiotech]

A 2003 study published in Human Psychopharmacology Clinical and Experimental found that allergy meds are associated with many reports of nightmares. In this case, the allergy meds are actants, nonhuman objects that have their own form of agency (Ellingson). Even though it is not their intended purpose, they have the agency of causing nightmares.

Sources:

Ellingson, L. L. (2017). Embodiment in Qualitative Research. Routledge, 10-27.

Pagel, J. F., & Helfter, P. (2003). Drug-induced nightmares:an etiology based review. Human Psychopharmacology Clinical and Experimental,18(1), 59-67. doi:10.1002/hup.465

[rethinkbiotech]

Male beauty bloggers perform gender in both traditionally masculine and traditionally feminine ways. While they are still doing bodies in a gendered way, a 2017 article from Lund University says that male beauty bloggers “represent a new way of constructing gender identities through consumption” (Hjort 4). Doing bodies refers to the way in which we experience the world through cultural practices that are learned and defined by our relationship with others (Ellingson). This includes ways that we express race, gender, and class. Male beauty bloggers are doing bodies in a transformative way by transcending masculine and feminine forms of doing body.

Sources:

Ellingson, L. L. (2017). Embodiment in Qualitative Research. Routledge, 10-27.

Hjort, M., & Komulainen, V. (2017). Men in Makeup: Performances of gender transgression in male beauty vloggers’ makeup consumption. Lund University Publications, 1-98.

[rethinkbiotech]

As schools demand higher academic standards for children, more and more children are becoming misfits in the academic setting. According to an article in JAMA Pediatrics, children that cannot meet these high demands are often diagnosed with ADD. Garland-Thomson explained misfit theory as “both the person who does not fit and the act of not fitting” (593). As the academic demands of children increase, more and more children become misfits in academia.

Sources:

Brosco, J. P., & Bona, A. (2016). Changes in Academic Demands and Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder in Young Children. JAMA Pediatrics, 170(4), 396-397. doi:10.1001/jamapediatrics.2015.4132

Garland-Thomson, R. (2011). Misfits: A Feminist Materialist Disability Concept. Hypatia, 26(3), 591-609.

[rethinkbiotech]

A cross-cultural comparison of attitudes towards rosé found that overall, rosé was perceived as a feminine drink. It doesn’t seem like an alcoholic drink should hold gendered meaning, but Wajcman argued that all technology is gendered. Every technology has some sort of gendered meaning culturally engrained in it.

Sources:

Velikova, N., Charters, S., Bouzdine-Chameeva, T., Fountain, J., Ritchie, C., & Dodd, T. (2014). Yes Way, Rosé! Cross-Cultural Comparison of Consumer Preferences, Perceptions and Attitudes towards Rosé Wine. In Proceedings of the Eighth International Conference of the Academy of Wine Business Research. 

Wajcman, J. (2009). Feminist theories of technology. Cambridge Journal of Economics, 1-10. doi:10.1093/cje/ben057

[rethinkbiotech]

Birth control pills contain estrogen and progesterone. According to an article in JAMA, these two hormones naturally occur in women’s bodies. Oral contraceptives are a perfect example of Haraway’s boundary breakdown between animal-human and machine because they have combined a very natural thing, hormones, with technology. This breakdown is characterized by technologies that have little to no distinction between “natural and artificial, mind and body, self-developing and externally designed, and many other distinctions that used to apply to organisms and machines” (Haraway 120).

Period apps are another part of Haraway’s boundary breakdown between human and technology because they keep detailed information about women’s bodies and help users gain a better understanding of their cycle. The Washington Post warned of the dangers of keeping so much intimate information online: Many period tracking apps are not secure, and they often sell user information to other companies.

Sources:

Haraway, D. (2006). A Cyborg Manifesto: Science, Technology, and Socialist-Feminism in the Late 20th Century. The International Handbook of Virtual Learning Environments,117-158.

Jin, J. (2014). Oral Contraceptives. JAMA, 311(3), 321. doi:10.1001/jama.2013.283505

Peterson, A. (2016, August 03). Watch out, ladies: Your period-tracking app could be leaking personal data. Retrieved from https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-switch/wp/2016/08/03/how-your-period-tracking-app-could-leak-your-most-intimate-information/?utm_term=.a88e66df821f

[rethinkbiotech]

“The vagina contains some of the most sensitive and absorbent tissue in the body.” 

-Washington Post. 

Do you know what you’re putting in your vagina? Takeshita’s concept of the standardized uterus explained methods of homogenizing women’s bodies in order to get rid of their autonomy. This allowed doctors and corporations to perform assembly-line assertions of IUD’s into patients without listening to complaints and caring for the women’s health. Women were reduced to their uteruses. Similarly, many tampon manufacturers overlook the chemicals they use in tampons, and little is done to protect women’s health. Organic tampons are a step in the right direction.

Sources:

Chandler, M. A. (2017, June 20). 'How do I know my tampons are safe?': More women push for detailed labels on feminine care products. Retrieved June 10, 2018, from https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/inspired-life/wp/2017/06/20/how-do-i-know-my-tampons-are-safe-more-women-pushing-for-detailed-labels-on-feminine-care-products/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.9c42184edfdb

Takeshita, C. (2012). The global biopolitics of the IUD: How science constructs contraceptive users and womens bodies. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press.

[rethinkbiotech]

A study in Sexuality and Culture about women’s perceptions about sex toys found that a common theme among women was personifying sex toys as male. This is an example of how internalized Wajcman’s theory of technology as gendered is.

Sources:

Fahs, B., & Swank, E. (2013). Adventures with the "plastic man": Sex toys, compulsory heterosexuality, and the politics of women's sexual pleasure. Sexuality & Culture, 17(4), 666-685. doi:http://dx.doi.org.libproxy.scu.edu/10.1007/s12119-013-9167-4

Wajcman, J. (2009). Feminist theories of technology. Cambridge Journal of Economics, 1-10. doi:10.1093/cje/ben057

[rethinkbiotech]

“Consumerism introduced new desires, discontents, and disapprovals by promoting the idea that women’s bodies must be perceived as an investment beholden to a barrage of commodified solutions that promised self-mastery and transformation.” 

-Karen W. Tice

The gendered culture of self-care and sunscreen use may be a surprising combination, but like all biotechnologies, sunscreen is part of a sticky web of culture. Ellingson described a sticky web of culture as a complex interaction between materials and the body that is shaped by language, culture, and context. While sunscreen doesn’t seem gendered, it is a part of a gendered culture of skin care. The language and packaging of COOLA sunscreen further add to this sticky web.

Sources:

Ellingson, L. L. (2017). Embodiment in Qualitative Research. Routledge, 10-27.

Tice, K. W. (2006). For Appearance's Sake: Beauty, Bodies, Spectacle, and Consumption. Journal of Women's History, 18(4), 147-156.

[rethinkbiotech]

Fritsch examined the ways in which wheelchairs and capitalism were intertwined. Just like the wheelchair was used as a way to normalize people with disabilities while simultaneously displaying that they were different, different types of deodorant profit off of creating a social difference and then charging women more for the same product. Women pay more for the same product over twice as much as men do (U.S. News).

Sources:

Fritsch, K. (2013). The Neoliberal Circulation of Affects: Happiness, accessibility and the capacitation of disability as wheelchair. Health, Culture and Society, 5(1), 135-146. doi:10.5195/hcs.2013.136

Taylor, S. J. (2016, February 17). The Pink Tax: Why Women's Products Often Cost More. Retrieved from https://money.usnews.com/money/personal-finance/articles/2016-02-17/the-pink-tax-why-womens-products-often-cost-more

[rethinkbiotech]

“The gym is a gendered space, where certain body techniques and locations are related to the female body and others with the male body” (Johansson 32). This is similar to Fritsch’s concepts of doing disability and normative embodiment. Spaces that are not accessible or only accessible through a secondary entrance send the message that people with disabilities are not part of the norm. Just like inaccessible spaces hold meaning, the gendered layout of the gym holds meaning.

Sources:

Fritsch, K. (2013). The Neoliberal Circulation of Affects: Happiness, accessibility and the capacitation of disability as wheelchair. Health, Culture and Society, 5(1), 135-146. doi:10.5195/hcs.2013.136

Johansson, T. (1996). Gendered spaces: The gym culture and the construction of gender. Young, 4(3), 32-47. doi:10.1177/110330889600400303

[rethinkbiotech]

“Music, to me, also was, and is, about the body, about what happens when what we call sound escapes its vacuum and creates ripples in the world.” 

-Rachel Kolb

In her New York Times article, “Sensations of Sound: On Deafness and Music,” Kolb explains that there are many different ways to experience music. The different ways that deaf people experience music is an example of sensorium, a term for the complex ways in which we experience the world through our senses and their interactions with our environment (Ellingson).

Sources:

Ellingson, L. L. (2017). Embodiment in Qualitative Research. Routledge, 10-27.

Kolb, R. (2017, November 03). Sensations of Sound: On Deafness and Music. Retrieved from https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/03/opinion/cochlear-implant-sound-music.html

[rethinkbiotech]

Be careful where you donate your old glasses. A study in Australia found that only 7% of donated glasses that they analyzed were able to be used. You might get happiness from donating a pair of glasses, but if you don’t look into where you’re donating, chances are the pair of glasses you donated will just end up in the trash.

Sources:

Fritsch, K. (2013). The Neoliberal Circulation of Affects: Happiness, accessibility and the capacitation of disability as wheelchair. Health, Culture and Society, 5(1), 135-146. doi:10.5195/hcs.2013.136

Wilson, D. A., Cronjé, S., Frick, K., & Holden, B. A. (2012). Real Cost of Recycled Spectacles. Optometry and Vision Science, 89(3), 304-309. doi:10.1097/opx.0b013e318242cfae

[rethinkbiotech]

Dry shampoo is an actant because it has the autonomy to promote a whitewashed beauty standard. Dry shampoo promotes straight, silky hair as the only most beautiful, which sends a harmful message about black hair. Weitz talks about the pressures from the beauty industry for black women to whitewash their hair, and products that promote this whitewashed beauty standard are a part of the structure enforcing this type of oppression.

Sources:

Ellingson, L. L. (2017). Embodiment in Qualitative Research. Routledge, 10-27.

Weitz, R. (2004). The History of Women's Hair. In Rapunzel's Daughters: What women's hair tells us about women's lives (pp. 4-29). Farrar, Straus and Giroux.

[rethinkbiotech]

According to an article in About Women in Marketing, the hair accessory industry is worth over $330 million. Hairstyles and hair accessories are a way of doing bodies. Not only do hair accessories show performances of class, but hairstyles also are performances of social status. White hairstyles are the beauty ideal, while black hairstyles are socially ostracized.

Sources:

Ellingson, L. L. (2017). Embodiment in Qualitative Research. Routledge, 10-27.

Mass marketers move into the $23 billion accessories market. (1998). About Women & Marketing, 11(8), 8-9.

[rethinkbiotech]

A 2003 article in Women’s Studies International Forum explained that body hair is a socially constructed way of differentiating men and women. The practice of removing body hair is a feminine form of doing bodies.

Sources:

Ellingson, L. L. (2017). Embodiment in Qualitative Research. Routledge,10-27.

Toerien, M., & Wilkinson, S. (2003). Gender and body hair: Constructing the feminine woman. Women’s Studies International Forum, 26(4), 333-344. doi:10.1016/s0277-5395(03)00078-5