Abstract
This article presents part of the results of a doctoral research, focusing our analyzes on the hormone-producing assemblages in contemporary society, specifically in its relation with the process of medicalization of sexuality. This study has as corpus of analysis 34 videos that directly or transversally approach the use of hormones, available through the Internet, on Youtube channels of a large multinational pharmaceutical industry. The videos are here conceived as "public domain documents", an expression coined by Peter Spink, to refer to discursive practices that promote circulation of know-how and ways of living in our society. Our analyzes show that hormones have been articulated with a series of elements in a complex network, producing modes of subjectivation and performing controversies. In the condition of biossocial artifacts, hormones can be used to guarantee sexual and reproductive rights, but also, antagonistically, serve to promote the compulsory medicalization of sexuality.
Keywords:
hormones; medication; sexuality; sexual rights; reproductive rights