Big sperm. The making of the (new) male repro-consumer

ABSTRACT

Have you tested your sperm count lately? Not only is reproduction increasingly becoming technologized, but men’s reproductive systems entangle with technological developments in complex ways. This paper takes its empirical point of departure from the marketing of three male fertility surveillance and optimization technologies to examine how men become discursively and visually implicated as repro-consumers. Whereas the Danish company ExSeed Health provides men with a take-home sperm test and lifestyle app, U.S.-located Snowballs Underwear and Polish CoolMen design cooling technologies to ‘naturally’ improve men’s fertility and testosterone levels. Theoretically, the paper draws upon social scientific theorizing of biomedicalization and fertility consumption as a way to ensure ideals of reproductive virility as well as critical studies of men and masculinity that view the latter as a social, relational, and historical construction. Situating the Fertility Tech industry as an important under-theorized example of emergent repro-technologies, this paper analytically discusses how ‘proactive’ and ‘prevention-conscious’ reproductive masculinities appear in the material. The allure of surveillance and optimization technologies lies, the article concludes, in the reiteration of a white, Western biomedical mandate to reproduce as well as in the continued optimization of reproduction.

KEYWORDS:

• Fertility tech
• men
• fertility consumption
• reproductive masculinity
• surveillance and optimization technologies

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes on contributor

Charlotte Kroløkke is professor with special responsibilities in cultural analyses of reproduction and reproductive technologies in the Department for the Study of Culture at the University of Southern Denmark.

Notes

1 Forbes watch-list is available: https://www.forbes.com/sites/paularmstrongtech/2018/01/08/these-are-the-startups-you-should-watch-in-2018/#4467f583b8df Retrieved September 1, 2019.

2 According to the UK Fertility News January 2019: https://fertilityconsent.com/scientists-invent-a-wearable-testicle-chilling-device-to-try-and-boost-mens-fertility/ Retrieved September 2, 2019.

3 Based on Skype interview with ExSeed Health undertaken May 2019.