Interfield Assemblages between Feminisms and Biomedicine

• In Event: 4211 - Feminist Theory and Institutions

Abstract

Recent theories of the intersections between feminist activism and biomedicine have cast these as entanglements or otherwise (e.g. fields) in order to nuance analyses of cooptation. We consider two cases in order to more fully theorize the role of structural power in these entanglements. Specifically, we compare two historical cases: feminist reform of teaching and learning the pelvic exam in medical schools; and the feminist counseling in the anti-violence movement. In both of these cases, feminist activists engaged with, resisted, (re)appropriated, and were appropriated by biomedicine. We argue that by bringing insights from assemblage theory into interfield dynamics, we are better able to explain mechanisms of stability and change. We claim that while the objective stakes of the field remain largely unchanged, as in the case of biomedicine, tools and practices enter the field via assemblages and become part of the struggle of the larger field.

Authors

• Kelly Underman, Drexel University

• Paige L. Sweet, Harvard University