Expect these symptoms: Delusional FemTech

FemTech, or Female Technologies, are specially designed eHealth software applications with the promise to aid women’s health. Although it sounds like an opportunity to reduce gendered health-gaps, it seems as if we have reached a point in which the emancipatory goals are being overshadowed. Incorrect advice not only fosters delusion but can also pose a danger to the health of people with ovaries, especially those who are already marginalised in society.

SPUI25 in Spe explores the shape of contemporary FemTech software, aiming to understand ideological technicalities within these digital and datafied healthcare systems. What can we, menstruating or not, learn from the current state of affairs surrounding these female technologies? And should we even be using these apps?

Expect these symptoms: delusional FemTech is the second part of a medical-technological two-part sequence, of which the first panel on November 20th was about our collective (medical) ignorance about menstrual and hormonal cycles. The two parts can be followed together or separately from each other.

About the speakers

Lisa van Oosten (moderator) is part of SPUI25 in Spe. She graduated in International Communication and Media and is currently pursuing a degree in Information Sciences at the University of Amsterdam. As a response to her fascination towards the ongoing digitization of everyday life, her interests lie primarily within the intersections of internet technologies and inclusive social change.

Britt Bakermans (moderator) is part of SPUI25 in Spe. She is studying medicine and often takes a broader perspective to better understand health disparities. She is particularly struck by how (un)health can reflect inequality. Britt aims to explore and advocate for a more inclusive and equitable healthcare system.