En-Gendered Surveillance: Women on the Edge of a Watched Cervix

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to provide a worked example, using cervical cancer screening, of how a nuanced consideration of the gendered and sexualized contexts in which surveillance is conducted might help to illumine the study of surveillance. In particular, the paper argues that neither the implementation nor the effects of women’s health surveillance can be understood without appreciating the ambiguous mutual dependences of gender constructs and surveillance practices. The first section of the paper examines the World Health Organization’s global program for comprehensive cervical cancer control, and raises the issue of how gendered and sexualized contexts are implicated in that program. Section Two then examines how health promotion strategies in cervical cancer screening are served by, and help to reinforce, gender constructions of women as ‘docile’ by nature. Section Three, by contrast, examines the ways in which some women respond to the controlling effect of surveillance by attempting to ‘take control’ of the screening process through various forms of activism, and thereby give effect to different gender constructions. The paper concludes that while surveillance contributes to creating screened populations burdened with gender constructs and imperatives, responses to surveillance are also shaped by gender constructs, and contribute to new gender constructs.

Father Knows Best: “Protecting” Women through State Surveillance and Social Control in Anti‐Abortion Policy

“…The implicit assumption is that women need more information concerning their reproductive health from external figures, such as a medical authority, because they are weaker or more vulnerable. Corones and Hardy (, 393) describe this phenomenon as the construction of the docile woman within practices of health surveillance, which “actually renders them uniquely subject to surveillance.” Stereotypes of women as passive figures in need of paternalistic control facilitate the conditions for even more surveillance in the form of health‐promoting behaviors. As women receive additional information concerning their reproductive health, they are subject to an increasingly complex set of “problems” and “solutions,” which invite more medical interventions (Corones and Hardy ).…”

“…Stereotypes of women as passive figures in need of paternalistic control facilitate the conditions for even more surveillance in the form of health-promoting behaviors. As women receive additional information concerning their reproductive health, they are subject to an increasingly complex set of "problems" and "solutions," which invite more medical interventions (Corones and Hardy 2009) . Wilson Lowry (2004, 361) uses the example of fetal-monitoring devices and genetic testing, which can "present expecting parents with new dilemmas and increased responsibility or culpability." When pregnant women receive information concerning their fetus's health, it is assumed they will act in a way that is both appropriately maternal, centering on the fetus's life, and socially acceptable, meeting the norms of what constitutes a livable life.…”

Instagram and Gendered Surveillance: Ways of Seeing the Hashtag

“…: 93). Corones and Hardy (2009) emphasize the same point by arguing that gender constructions and notions of sexuality and surveillance must not be studied or viewed independently of one another. They write that social constructions of both gender and sexuality "are key shapers of social contexts in general" (ibid.…”

Gender verification in sport as a surveillance practice - inside and outside perception.

“…All the regulations concerning verifying gender apply only to women. These processes of gendering the female body are not limited to sports only (see e.g., Corones and Hardy 2009), but are highly visible in sports where the female body is prominent.…”