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.