Lost in translation? Beyond sex as a biological variable in animal research.

Details

Serval ID
serval:BIB_378AA0DE2F7B
Type
Article: article from journal or magazin.
Collection
Publications
Institution
Title
Lost in translation? Beyond sex as a biological variable in animal research.
Journal
Health sociology review
Author(s)
Pape M.
ISSN
1446-1242 (Print)
ISSN-L
1446-1242
Publication state
Published
Issued date
11/2021
Peer-reviewed
Oui
Volume
30
Number
3
Pages
275-291
Language
english
Notes
Publication types: Journal Article ; Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
Publication Status: ppublish
Abstract
In this article, I develop a feminist posthumanist account of biomedical policymaking as a material-discursive intervention that shapes the emergence of phenomena in the scientific laboratory. The setting is United States (U.S.) biomedicine, where a recent policy of the National Institutes of Health has mandated the consideration of sex in basic and preclinical research. Called Sex as a Biological Variable (SABV), the mandate configures cell lines and animal models as the next frontier in the project of advancing gender equity in biomedical research. Given sex and gender are increasingly recognised as having complex, entangled, and dynamic effects on human health and illness, how do laboratory animals respond to their attempted enrolment in this regulatory intervention? Through a qualitative analysis of this policy domain, I show how laboratory animals reveal the context-specific character of sex, its multiplicity and elusiveness as a so-called biological variable, and the considerable work needed to shore up human ideologies of sex as a pervasive cross-species form of binary difference. I suggest that while regulatory interventions constrain patterns of mattering, they also serve as agential openings in which laboratory animals can 'kick back' and reconfigure the pursuit of knowledge, particularly as it relates to difference and health.
Keywords
Animal Experimentation, Animals, Biomedical Research, Humans, National Institutes of Health (U.S.), Policy, Sex Factors, United States, Sex, gender, intra-action, nonhuman, regulation, women’s health
Pubmed
Web of science
Create date
15/09/2021 9:47
Last modification date
26/11/2024 7:04
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