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Published on: August 30, 2016
The Microbial Mother Meets the Independent Organ: Cultural Discourses of Reproductive Microbiomes
1Department of Communication, The University of Utah, Languages and Communication Bldg, 255 S Central Campus Dr., Rm 2400, Salt Lake City, UT, 84112, USA. jesse.houf@utah.edu.
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The human microbiome is changing the way experts and non-experts think about germs and microorganisms. This essay is a gender analysis of contemporary discourses surrounding the human reproductive microbiome, specifically the vaginal microbiota and the penile microbiota. I first historically situate the human reproductive microbiome within the germ theory of disease. Then, I draw on Heather Paxson's Foucauldian and Latourian concept of microbiopolitics to argue that microbiopolitics is not only about how humans should live with microorganisms; but it also impacts how humans and microbes live together as gendered beings. I illustrate this gendering through two figures: the microbial mother and the independent organ.
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