Feminism and Finitude

Author(s)

  • Alessandra Mularoni University of Western Ontario

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.54195/technophany.13784

Keywords:

transhumanism, xenofeminism, ecofeminism, eugenics, biopolitics, immortality, finitude

Abstract

This essay examines the ideological parallels between the transhuman pursuit for immortality and xenofeminism’s call for biological manipulation. Paying particular attention to the patriarchal legacy of technoscience, I identify eugenic principles embedded in the discursive emphasis on anti-naturalism, freedom, and alienation. My intention is to recuperate xenofeminism’s more radical manoeuvres by resituating its aims through a historical materialist approach. Specifically, I suggest a reinterpretation of nature as inherently technological. In so doing, I argue for an alliance between xenofeminism and ecofeminist political economy to engage a discursive redirection toward degrowth and dealienation. I then build on Rosi Braidotti’s (2013) posthuman theory of death to suggest an uncomfortable biopolitical expansion: a biopolitics for the Anthropocene should not only seek an equal right to live, but also an equal predisposition to death. My countervailing materialism centres a politics of finitude through an analysis of the vital-fatal entanglement in the body’s reproductive capacities.

Author Biography

  • Alessandra Mularoni, University of Western Ontario

    Alessandra Mularoni is a PhD candidate in Media Studies at the University of Western Ontario. Her research focuses on the biopolitical dimensions of transhumanism. She has written for Political Economy of Communication, Inscriptions, and Catalyst: Feminism, Theory, Technoscience. She co-manages the web-based project, Platforms, Populisms, Pandemics, Riots (projectpppr.org).

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Published

2023-06-18

Issue

Section

Technē and Feminism: Articles (edited by Katarina Kolozova and Vera Bühlmann)

How to Cite

Mularoni, Alessandra. 2023. “Feminism and Finitude”. Technophany, A Journal for Philosophy and Technology 2 (1): 1-20. https://doi.org/10.54195/technophany.13784.