Reinventing the Beauty Myth?: FemTech's Cost to the Consumer

Hannah Louisa Westwood

doi:10.1007/978-981-99-5605-0

Reinventing the Beauty Myth? FemTech's Cost to the Consumer

Hannah Louisa Westwood

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Chapter

23 Citations (Scopus)

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	https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-99-5605-0
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

Access to Document

10.1007/978-981-99-5605-0

Cite this

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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. ",

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