27
QuestionWould ectogenesis (e.g. artificial wombs) liberate or oppress women?
There is a trans-inclusionary belief that women’s oppression begins with our bodies, and if one doesn't "identify as a woman," her societal value wouldn't stand or fall upon her ability to carry a pregnancy to term: https://archive.is/jaBJ0
That women cannot be free until released from biology has to do with the long‐standing conceptual link between female reproductive function, the identity category ‘woman’, and the social role ‘mother’
Ending women’s oppression means severing the tie between the identity category ‘woman’ and female biology. We have now stepped closer to having the means to sever this tie: to be able to conceive and gestate a foetus to maturity entirely outside of a female body. This technology is still very much in the early stages of development, but in 2017 a team of researchers made a significant leap in ectogenesis when they successfully gestated a lamb in an artificial uterine environment for four weeks. In 2019, a second team successfully maintained foetal lambs in artificial womb environments, this time for five days. So, what was once perhaps mere science fiction is now much closer to reality
I propose that we can break the conceptual links between ‘woman’, ‘mother’ and female reproductive function and forge new ones that are less exclusionary and oppressive
Ectogenesis should be utilized conceptually to advance the separation of female reproductive function from ‘woman’ and from ‘mother’. Pursuing technologies that would weaken the presumed link between biology and ‘woman’ seems beneficial to (trans‐inclusionary radical) feminist aims, as part of a broad project of challenging dominant power relations that begin within the family
Trans-exclusionary radical feminism emphasizes the control of women's bodies by men as the root of patriarchal oppression. Trans-inclusionary "feminists" envisage the separation of the identity category "woman" from the female body or the development of artificial reproduction as a means of eliminating patriarchy, whereas for trans-exclusionary radical feminists, the fact that only women can carry a pregnancy to term is a source of power women should control. Artificial reproduction distorts the experience. Within this "woman =/= adult human female" separation lies patriarchy's ability to survive
Technology extends the control of reproduction, and pathologizes womanhood. I think the procedures carried out by a male dominated medical profession wouldn't work in the ultimate interests of women. As long as technology is controlled by men, it will be used, not to empower women, but to consolidate male power
What do you think? Did other radical feminist sisters write about artificial reproduction and transhumanism?