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ABSTRACT
This article examines the growing industry of digital self-tracking technologies designed for the female body, popularly known as femtech. Focusing mainly on reproductive technologies and applications, it situates femtech within the broader historical context of excluding women from research on medicine and clinical trials. Approaching femtech as datafied body projects, we argue that, even though these digital reproductive health technologies enhance user capacity for self-knowledge by quantifying reproduction, they raise apprehensions about issues of reproductive surveillance. These datafied body projects are not only technology-driven, but are also shaped by the neo-liberal ethos in which the state-corporate nexus shifts the onus of health management to participatory individuated forms, deemed as “empowering,” while simultaneously harnessing this user-generated data for control and profit. Finally, we argue that merely representing women in all spheres of health and procuring data on the female body is insufficient to address the larger concerns of gender in health. A more close-grained approach that addresses the structural embeddedness of exploitation of the female body for profit and the masculine epistemology around which these technologies are built is necessary.
ABSTRACT IN HINDI
इस लेख का विषय है महिलाओ केशरीर केलिएबनी डिजिटल सेल्फ ट्रैकिंग टेक्नोलॉजी जिसेआम तौर पर फेमटेक कहतेहैं। प्रजनन तकनीकोंऔर उनकेइस्तेमाल पर केंद्रित, यह लेख फेमटेक को औरतों केचिकित्सा अनुसंधान और क्लीनिकल परिक्षण सेऐतिहासिक बहिष्करण में स्थित करता है। हम फेमटेक को डाटाफिएड शरीर परियोजना की नज़र सेदेखते हुए यह तर्क करतेहैं कि यह डिजिटल जनन स्वास्थय उद्योग कलाए, उपयोगकर्ता केआत्म ज्ञान की क्षमता को बढ़ाने केसाथ साथ प्रजनन निगरानी की आशंकाओं को भी बढ़ाती हैं। यह डाटाफिएड शरीर परियोजनाएप्रौद्योगिकी नियंतरित होन ् े के साथ साथ नव-उदारवाद से भी प्रभावित हैं जिसकेअंतर्गत सरकार-व्यापार का अन्तर्सम्बन्ध, स्वास्थ्य प्रबंध की ज़िम्मेदारी सहभागी व्यक्तिगत विधियों पर डाल देता है, जिन्हे सशक्तिकरण का मार्ग माना जाता है। इसकेअलावा इस उपयोगकर्ता उत्पन्न जानकारी का इस्तेमाल नियंत्रण और मुनाफेकेलिएकिया जाता है। यह लेख विवेचन करता है की सिर्फ स्वास्थ्य केअनेक क्षेत्रो में महिलाओ का प्रतिनिधित्व और उनकेशरीर पर जानकारी जमा करना, स्वास्थय में व्यापक लैंगिक समस्याओ को जाननेऔर हल करनेकेलिएकाफी नहीं है। बल्कि एक नज़दीकी, सघन दृष्टिकोण की आवश्यकता है, जो मुनाफेकेलिएऔरत केशरीर केशोषण की संरचनात्मक अंतःस्थापितता और इन प्रौद्योगिकीयो की पौरुष ज्ञान-मीमांसा की जांच करे।
Acknowledgement
We want to thank the Indraprastha Institute of Information Technology, Delhi (IIITD) for the institutional support and Prof. Ravinder Kaur and Prof. Anindita Majumdar for their comments and feedback.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Notes
1 Across most parts of the world, for example, menstruation is associated with impurity, dirt, uncleanliness and toxicity (Sondergaard, Citation2015; Dube, Citation2001), regarded as the “ultimate taboo” (Buckley & Gottlieb, Citation1988) and routinely hidden from public view (Chrisler, Citation2011).
2 It was not until 1994, that the US National Institute of Health mandated the inclusion of women in clinical trials.
3 In 2020, of 318 global Femtech companies, only 41 were from Southeast Asia (Li, Citation2021).
Additional information
Notes on contributors
Paro Mishra
Paro MISHRA is Assistant Professor of Social Anthropology at the Department of Social Sciences and Humanities, Indraprastha Institute of Information Technology, Delhi. Her core research interests lie at the intersection of Gender and Technology – New Reproductive Technologies and Information/ Digital Technologies. She has received fellowships and grants from the Netherlands Institute for Advanced Studies, University Grants Commission, Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi and the Indian Council of Social Science Research. Her select publications include special issue co-editorship for Asian Bioethics Review (2021; 13(1)) and in Journals like Anthropology and Aging (2021), The Sociological Review (2020), Society and Culture in South Asia (2015) and Economic & Political Weekly (2013). Email: [email protected]
Yogita Suresh
Yogita SURESH is a doctoral student in the Department of Sociology, Shiv Nadar University, Delhi NCR. She is working on the intersections of gender and technology in technical institutions in India. Her interest areas include reproductive technologies, gender and education and digital technologies. Email: [email protected]