Representing Users' Bodies

The Gendered Development of Anti-Fertility Vaccines

Bibliographic Data

ID5198033
AuthorsJessika Van Kammen (University of Amsterdam, corresponding author)
Year1999
Volume24
Issue3
Pages307-337
Publication date1999-07-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueScience Technology & Human Values (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0162-2439 • E-ISSN: 1552-8251
PublisherSAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1177/016224399902400301
OpenAlexW2127374009
LanguageEN
Citations received3
References cited47

This article is about the ways in which representations of users' bodies mediate in the designers' configuration of anti-fertility vaccines and their future users. Anti-fertility vaccines are a novel and not yet available method to regulate fertility. The researchers involved claim that anti-fertility vaccines can be developed for both men and women. But in the material and political specificities of the research contexts, representations of male bodies as users have disappeared, and most research involves the development of a method to be used by women. Anti-fertility vaccines therefore provide an opportunity to study when the sex of future users is deemed relevant by the researchers. This article explores how the fact that most anti-fertility vaccines are developed for female users can be explained without resorting to biological or cultural determinism. How much room for maneuver did the researchers have in defining the vaccines and their users

Fertility · Fertility preservation · Political science · Politics · Population · Public relations · Social science · Sociology · Technological determinism · Demography · Feminism, Gender, and Sexuality Studies · Gender, Feminism, and Media · Law · Sex work and related issues