Abstract
As a rapidly growing subset of the digital health ecosystem, FemTech requires critical engagement to ensure that its products and solutions are safe, accessible and equitable. This chapter uses Naomi Wolf's (1990) theory of the beauty myth as a critical framework with which to analyse FemTech. To do this, the chapter offers a close reading of three FemTech products and services in relation to three central concerns that Wolf highlights in The Beauty Myth; Natural Cycles and advertising, reusable menstrual underwear and economic marginalisation, and Progyny and self-surveillance. These close readings are underpinned by the question of who FemTech is for, and the costs, both financial and otherwise, that consumers are burdened with. Such analysis reveals the necessity of critically engaging with FemTech in order to advocate for an industry that is more equitable, and provides solutions to those who need them most.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Title of host publication | FemTech |
| Subtitle of host publication | Intersectional Interventions in Women’s Digital Health |
| Editors | Lindsay Anne Balfour |
| Publisher | Palgrave Macmillan |
| Pages | 47-71 |
| Number of pages | 24 |
| Edition | 1 |
| ISBN (Electronic) | 9789819956050 |
| ISBN (Print) | 9789819956043, 9789819956074 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - 24 Dec 2023 |
Bibliographical note
Publisher Copyright:© The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2023.
Keywords
- Disability studies
- Feminist cultural studies
- Feminist science and technology studies
- Health studies
- Health technologies
- History of medicine
- Inclusive design
- Intersectionality
- Media studies
- Reproductive health
- Surveillance technologies
- Technoscience
- Wearable technologies
- Women’s digital health
- Women’s health technologies
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- General Medicine
- General Social Sciences