A hybrid ontology of gender: chromosomes, photographs, and ultrasound scans in the circulation of fetal imagery in Spain, 1950-1970
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.30827/dynamis.v43i2.29445Keywords:
Fetal historiography, human cytogenetics, medicalization, pregnancy, visual cultures, woman’s bodiesAbstract
This article presents a proposal for a chronology of fetal images in Spain that includes the process of production and circulation of human chromosomes (fetal karyotype as a portrait), of the photographs of fetuses by Lennart Nilsson, and of the images provided by ultrasound scanning. This set of representations made the visual culture of the fetus a gendered historical subject that medicalized and technified pregnancy, privileging the fetus instead of the woman’s pregnant body as the subject of pregnancy. In this process, the fetus gained autonomy as a hybrid ontology. This article contributes to a fetal historiography that analyzes the fetus as manufactured by the interaction of three technologies: cytology, photography, and ultrasound scanning.
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