Y’know what’s hot right now, like so hot, like O-M-G hawt? That new thing, ready to pop, drawing moneygrubbers like locusts? Female health, oh yeah, like menstruation and shit, and tech products thereof.
Femtech it’s hashtagged, and news of it bubble to the surface of the 24-hour news cycle cauldron like a particularly cynical mood in the luteal phase, of how investors are drawn to it like flies to honey. Consisting primarily, currently, of apps to track your position on the menstrual cycle, extending to aids to deal with postpartum, menopause, or dietary guidelines depending on how your wheel’s turning. Y’know, all them things that men in and outside the medical profession has dismissed as “female issues” for centuries. But now, with the keen interest of those magical financiers, and the growing gender inclusivity within, the medical concerns of half of the world’s population are broken as if it were news.
Which, I wholeheartedly agree, is high time.
The last time women had new medical head wind was in the 60’s with the invention of the COCP, colloquially known simply as The Pill, and the potential liberation from simply being baby-machines. Which, in itself, was sort of revolutionary. But far from perfect, with its hormonal and holistic effects on the body. Without getting into the medical weeds of the COCP, it can cause a lot of stress and hormonal balance issues that the medical community just shrugged at, declared good enough, and stopped giving a shit about. Because who cares if some women get completely disjointed from their natural cycle, with all the health implications implied, so long as men can enjoy some more consequence free sexy times. So; yes, it is a good thing that women get access to new tools and support to manage, take control of, or simply pay mind to the regular rhythm of their physiology.
And yet, I sour at the headline. “Women’s health getting hotter – investors divine future gold mine!” I find it sickening, to be precise. Because heavens forbid that the general public (or more precisely the half of the public that has traditionally had a monopoly on the public discourse) take an interest in the inevitable health complications and consideration of half of the population without the promise of profit at the end of it. It’s as if no one could give a single shit about cancer unless some motherfucker came up with a way to make money out of it…
Products and services are the ways with which we engage. That much is… clear, regardless of what you think of it. Which, essentially, is good. It’s fine. Maybe it’s just me that gets disgusted by a woman’s health considerations getting paywalled by monthly subscriptions or ad exposure. And it is absolutely about time that we, collectively, start giving a shit about a physiological cycle other than the circadian rhythm. I just find that it goats my fucking groats that the (only?) way we accomplish that is to dangle shiny promises of commercialistic growth in front of investors, like the greedy fucking magpies they are.
Female health deserves attention, and tolerance. Which it hasn’t enjoyed, perhaps ever (thanks Abraham). And it sickens me that the only way it can get that attention and acceptance is by turning women into mining rigs for the wealthy. Women deserve better. We, collectively as a species, deserve better. Because we sure as shit didn’t need commercialism to care about erectile dysfunction, did we?
/Sebastian Lindberg 12/7-2022
WastedWords 