Cyborg Perspectives week five

CYBORG PERSPECTIVES: women and technology today

MENU :: OVERVIEW :: RESOURCES :: DISCUSSION :: TIMETABLE :: MANIFESTO :: MENU

WEEK :: TWO :: THREE :: FOUR :: FIVE :: SIX :: SEVEN :: EIGHT :: NINE :: TEN :: WEEK

taught by Ann Kaloski and Julie Palmer, Centre for Women's Studies, autumn term 2005.

WEEK FIVE
CYORG BODIES: ULTRASOUND CASE STUDY

It is certainly true that postmodernist strategies, like my cyborg myth, subvert myriad organic wholes . . . In short, the certainty of what counts as nature - a source of insight and promise of innocence - is undermined, probably fatally. 'Manifesto' pp152-3.

Foetal images are very common in British popular culture and they have been the subject of much feminist critique in the field of reproductive politics. The techno-foetus is a cyborg that is not often named as such. The aim of this session is to think about foetal imaging in relation to Haraway's cyborg figure and see how this might change our thinking and offer new possibilities. We will pay particular attention to the usefulness and limitations of the cyborg metaphor in this case.

KEY READING:

Donna J. Haraway. 1997. 'Fetus: The Virtual Speculum in the New World Order' In Modest Witness pp. 173-212.
This is an opportunity to read some more of Haraway's work. In this piece Haraway situates the foetus or techno-foetus within contemporary visual culture, within technoscientific culture and within feminist reproductive politics.

Marilyn Maness Mehaffy. 2000. Fetal Attractions: The limit of Cyborg Theory. Women's Studies 29: 177-194.
This introduces some of the ways in which the foetal image is used in popular culture. Mehaffy engages with Haraway's cyborg, and explicitly addresses the limitations of cyborg theory. Try and read this piece critically, and keep your own understanding of the Manifesto in mind.

Also, spend some time looking at this website: Joseph Woo. n.d. Obstetric Ultrasound: A Comprehensive Guide Available online < http://www.ob-ultrasound.net/ > This will tell you more than you will ever need to know about ultrasound technology! But it is a good way to learn about the technology and how it works.

QUESTIONS TO THINK ABOUT AS YOU READ:

Do you agree that the foetus is a cyborg? Which boundaries are blurred and which are constructed in foetal imaging? (think about the female body but also think about nature/culture, self/other, science/art etc. . . )

What are the limits of the cyborg metaphor in this case?

Mehaffy contends that the 'cyborg body is not intrinsically exempt from appropriation and recontainment within hegemonic ideologies of the body'. Do you agree?

Could it be politically useful to think about the foetus as a cyborg? In what way?

Feminists have struggled to combat the political (mis)use of foetal images with something equally powerful, with little success. Do you have any ideas?

EXERCISE:

Before the next session:
1. Find an example of an obstetric ultrasound image. You might find them in newspapers and magazines, on the Internet, in advertisements for scanners or clinics. (If you have difficulty finding something, come and see me)
2. Read it critically. Use the essential reading to inform your work as well as thinking back to the 'Cyborg Manifesto' and 'Situated Knowledges'. Come to class prepared to share your thoughts with the group.

SUGGESTIONS: Think about where the boundaries are in the image? What is excluded, what is included? Can you see the technology that produced the image? What might an mechanical/ technical understanding of how obstetric ultrasound works add to your reading? 'How is visibility possible? For whom, by whom, and of whom?' (Haraway p. 202) Does the image look like a cyborg? How is the cyborg nature of the foetus represented or hidden?

ADDITIONAL READING:

Flis Henwood, 2001. In/different Screening: Contesting Medical Knowledge in an Antenatal Setting. In Cyborg Lives? Women's Technobiographies ed. Flis Henwood, Helen Kennedy and Nod Miller, 37-50. York: Raw Nerve Books Ltd.

JaneMaree Maher, 2002. 'Towards a Placental Body' Feminist Review 72: 95-107.

Lisa Mitchell and Eugenia Georges. 1998. Baby's First Picture: The Cyborg Fetus of Ultrasound Imaging. In Cyborg Babies: From Techno-sex to Techno-tots eds. Robbie Davis-Floyd and Joseph Dumit, 105-124. New York: Routledge.

Rosalind Pollack Petchesky, 1987. Foetal Images: The Power of Visual Culture in the Politics of Reproduction. In Reproductive Technologies: Gender, Motherhood and Medicine ed. Michelle Stanworth, 57-80. Cambridge & Oxford: Polity Press in association with Basil Blackwell.