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Resumo

In this article Emily Martin analyses resistance and its relations to power and hegemony. She discusses the ideological effects of biological imagery. When human reproduction is described in biology texts, scientific as well as popular, the egg and the sperm are depicted differently. The egg is seen as 'feminine', passive, special, holy, set apart and above, in need of rescue by the sperm. In contrast sperms are described as 'masculine', active; they have a mission, a quest, they undertake a perilous journey through a hostile environment, and make an existential decision to penetrate the egg. What social effects might such vivid imagery have? Endowing cells with intentional action, an important aspect of personhood, may break down the boundaries between the self and the world. What will constitute the inviolable self? This might lead to a change of focus, the patient (or person) may become an environment for a new core self, which exists at the cellular level. Finally Emily Martin describes a group of young people watching a film about human reproduction, 'The Miracle of Life', and how the following discussion shows that the group manages to analyse the imagery and see its implications.

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