1 / 21

Reproductive and Genetic Technologies

This presentation explores the concept of new reproductive technologies, focusing on resistance to IVF, NRTs as disciplinary technologies, surveillance of women's bodies, and the creation of new desires and objects/subjects. It also examines the potential for rethinking resistance in the context of these technologies.

jhiner
Download Presentation

Reproductive and Genetic Technologies

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

  1. Reproductive and Genetic Technologies Technologies of the Gendered Body: Week 10

  2. Presentations • Groups of 4-5 • Focusing on up to three images / articles / ads / published reports etc • Critical discussion • Draw from across the module (with reference to the literature) • Powerpoint • 15 minutes of presentation; 5 minutes for questions

  3. Outline • What are the new reproductive technologies? • Resisting IVF • NRTs as disciplinary technologies • Procedure / process • Surveilling female bodies • Creating new desires • Creating new objects / subjects • Rethinking resistance

  4. What are “new reproductive technologies”?

  5. Resisting IVF • Many people (feminist and non-feminst) have opposed IVF – why?)

  6. NRTs as disciplinary technologies • Biopower is reflected in the “numerous and diverse techniques for achieving the subjugation of bodies and the control of populations” (Foucault, 1978: 140) • Power is “everywhere; not because it embraces everything, but because it comes from everywhere” (ibid. : 93)

  7. Jana Sawicki (1991) • “Disciplinary technologies are not primarily repressive mechanisms. In other words, they do not operate primarily through violence against or seizure of women’s bodies or bodily processes, but rather by producing new objects and subjects of knowledge, by inciting and channelling desires, generating and focusing individual and group energies, and establishing bodily norms and techniques for observing, monitoring and controlling bodily movements, processes and capacities. Disciplinary technologies control the body through techniques that simultaneously render it more useful, more powerful and more docile.” (p. 83)

  8. Jana Sawicki (1991) • “Disciplinary practices represent the body as a machine. They aim to render the individual both more power, productive , useful and docile. They are located within institutions such as hospitals, schools, and prisons, but also at the microlevel of society in the everyday activities and habits of individuals. They secure their hold not through the threat of violence or force, but rather by creating desires, attaching individuals to specific identities, and establishing norms against which individuals and their behaviours and bodies are judged and against which they police themselves.” (p. 68)

  9. Processes / Procedures • A laboratory procedure • A process of assisted conception

  10. Surveillance of women’s bodies • Pre-pregnancy preparation (e.g. pre-natal vitamins) • Monitoring of women during pregnancy • Public (and self-) surveillance of pregnant women • Self-monitoring (basal body temp; ovulation kits; pregnancy tests; measuring of hormones) • Close monitoring of women undergoing IVF (to check for ovarian hyperstimulation syndrome / follicle maturity / uterine wall thickness) • Genetic testing (of parents; of foetuses; of embryos)

  11. Creating new desires

  12. Creating new objects / subjects

  13. Creating new objects / subjects

  14. Creating new obejcts / subjects

  15. Creating new objects / subjects • The (post) IVF patient Claire: “I can say “At least I tried”. So there can be no stage in the future when I might say to myself, “Oh well, if only I’d tried, it could have been different”. Erm…it’s almost like I can say to society, “look, I tried to be the typical female, I tried to be the mother, you know, but it conspired against me, so I now have the right to go off and spend my money on nice holidays or whatever and don’t feel guilty.” (Throsby 2006: 84)

  16. Creating new subjects • The post-IVF fertile body: • Angela: “Then I was on 6 ampoules, erm, produced 22 eggs…no, there were 22 of the little sacs, 21 eggs – and none fertilised”. • June: “I didn’t consider myself infertile, but I didn’t know what was happening as well…It only takes on egg to get fertilised, so I didn’t consider myself to be infertile”. (Throsby 2006: 88)

  17. Creating new objects / subjects • The post-IVF infertile body: • John: “No it’s like “Do you have any children?” I say, “Well, no, unfortunately, my couldn’t have any. We’ve tried, but we couldn’t”. (Throsby and Gill 2004: 338)

  18. Rethinking resistance

  19. Rethinking resistance • (prospective) patient action: • Fighting for funding / treatment • Strategic half-truths (about smoking / relationship / how long they’ve been “trying”) • Within relationships – persuasion / negotiation to circumvent resistance • Using genetic testing to select for a disability

  20. But… Important not to overstate this agency: • Active role exposes women to blame when it fails • Ongoing pressures on (some) women to be mothers • Some very worrying examples of coercion: • Contraceptive implants / sterilisations • The “sharing” of eggs for the treatment of others (or for research) in exchange for reduced cost treatment

  21. Conclusion Kathy Davis (about cosmetic surgery) (1995: 180): • It should be seen as “a dilemma rather than as a form of self-inflected subordination”. • This is “what makes it both desirable and problematic for women”.

More Related