Ici THK — Cyberfeminism

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Common Knowledge and Political Love

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Under capitalism, femininity and gender roles became a + “labor” function, and women became a “labor class.” On + one hand, women’s bodies and labor are revered and + exploited as a “natural” resource, a biocommons or + commonwealth that is fundamental to maintaining and + continuing life: women are equated with “the lands,” + “mother-earth,” or “the homelands.” On the other hand, + women’s sexual and reproductive labor—motherhood, + pregnancy, childbirth—is economically devalued and + socially degraded. In the Biotech Century, women’s bodies + have become flesh labs and Pharma-commons: They are + minedfor eggs, embryonic tissues, and stem cells for use + in medical, and therapeutic experiments, and are employed + as gestational wombs in assisted reproductive + technologies (ART). Under such conditions, resistant + feminist discourses of the “body” emerge as an explicitly + biopolitical practice.

Primitive Accumulation

Human and animal bodies have been the most valuable + commodity in human culture since primitive accumulation + began. It follows, then, that bodies are also primary + sites of sovereignty, resistance, and contestation. In + this chapter, subRosa begins by tracing a brief history + of lay or “common” medical, and healing practices that + posed an embodied resistance to religious, medical, and + capitalist control of gendered bodies, reproduction, and + medical practices—and connects them to current social + struggles to create accessible and just public + health-care systems, biopolitical autonomy, and knowledge + in common. Researching and learning from these histories + is fundamental to subRosa’s cultural practice.

Resistance

Historically, women’s bodies have been notoriously + resistant to machine adaptation or medical regulation. + The unpredictable ebb and flow of menstrual cycles, + hormones, moods, libido, weight loss or gain, metabolism, + ovulation, pregnancy, gestation period, fertility, and + natural birth rhythms, have severely tested scientific + control and management methods.

Detournement

SmartMom is a detournement (a tactic used by the + situationists to change original meanings of texts or + images) of the concept of the Defense Advanced Research + Project Agency’s (DARPA) Smart T-Shirt technology, and + the cyborg engineering of the body for space travel, as + described in Manfred Clynes and Nathan Cline’s article + “Cyborgs and Space.” SmartMom satirically proposes a + civilian adaptation of the technology of the Smart + T-Shirt as a new means of surveilling the behavior of + pregnant women. Although the shirt was originally + engineered for remote battlefield wound sensing and to + facilitate telepresent surgery for soldiers or space + travelers, it was not hard for subRosa to imagine + “repurposing” DARPA’s Smart T-Shirt to control women’s + productive and reproductive labor.