This wasn't just a statement about the physicality of bodies, but the way they are identified. Manning has transitioned from male to female since her detention began in 2010. For Dewey-Hagborg's project, called "Radical Love," the artist created an algorithmically generated gender neutral portrait and a portrait that had been "gendered" female, in order to highlight the problem of using birth-assigned sex to also assign gender."The exhibition of both these possible faces side by side draws attention to the problem of utilizing chromosomes or birth assigned sex to assign gender as well as a larger issue of what it means to rely on stereotyped ideas of what a gendered face is 'supposed' to look like," Dewey-Hagborg wrote in a text accompanying the work."Our society's dependence on imagery says a lot about our values. Unfortunately, prisons try very hard to make us inhuman and unreal by denying our image, and thus our existence, to the rest of the world. Imagery has become a kind of proof of existence. Just consider the online refrain 'pics or it didn't happen.'"
The Art of Biology
In the US in particular, affordable access to high-quality birth control is in the year 2017 still controversial, and efforts by the new president and Congress could make that access harder. At the same time, evidence of psychological harm from the disruption of hormonal regulation that estrogen-based contraceptives cause is growing. The pill has been linked to depression and is said to worsen existing depression in young women. Generally, the various ways that different women respond to hormones remain little understood.Biopower in Foucault's theory refers to the ability of the state to regulate and control us—as a population—by optimizing our economic productivity or controlling the conditions of life.
The Promise and Perils of Biotechnology
On the other hand, the historical management of and obsession with bodies—particularly pertaining to reproduction (female bodies) and sexual identities (intersex, hermaphrodites, and transsexual bodies) and racial ones (from slavery to biased policing)—are still pervasive in modern society. Consider this scenario outlined by the Council for Responsible Genetics:The Panopticon isn't something that's done to us; we are willingly walking ourselves into it.
"You are between the ages of 18 and 35 and live in a city, town or neighborhood where a homicide has occurred. A police officer comes to your home and requests a cheek swab of your saliva so that a DNA profile can be obtained. You are told that the purpose of obtaining your DNA is to exclude you as a suspect. This is what is known as a DNA dragnet to find the perpetrator of a crime. You are told that you have the right to refuse but if you do, the police will treat you as a potential suspect. You are not told anything about what will happen to your DNA profile and the biological sample from which it is drawn after the case is closed."
Governments could, for example, acquire the ability to genetically engineer soldiers—something straight out of bad action movies. DARPA is of course obsessed with human enhancement for military purposes. This is also the goal of the transhumanists who seek to transcend the limits of being human—their übermenschlich desire is to use biotechnology to create a new species of being with vastly superior intelligence, strength and morality.Anticipating today's transhumanists during the dawn of the genetic age in 1969, philosopher of science Karl Popper remarked in a lecture:"The idea of letting some men meddle with mankind just because they have a smattering of genetics is too silly for words."
"I regard the dreams of the eugenicists to improve the human population by genetic engineering as preposterous. Of course, I do not object to gentle measures designed to reduce hereditary diseases. But who is to judge what is good for mankind in the positive sense? Who is to be the judge of what will be better and better hereditary types? Who can foresee the conditions in which these types would be better types than others? The idea of letting some men meddle with mankind just because they have a smattering of genetics is too silly for words."