Project

Open Source Estrogen

marymaggic

Biomolecules to biopolitics: hormones with institutional biopower! Open Source Estrogen combines do-it-yourself science, body and gender politics, and ethics of hormonal manipulation. The goal of the project is to create an open source protocol for estrogen biosynthesis. The kitchen is a politically charged space, prescribed to women as their proper dwelling, making it the appropriate place to prepare an estrogen synthesis recipe. With recent developments in the field of synthetic biology, the customized kitchen laboratory may be a ubiquitous possibility in the near future. Open-access estrogen would allow women and transgender females to exercise greater control over their bodies by circumventing governments and institutions. We want to ask: What are the biopolitics governing our bodies? More importantly, is it ethical to self-administer self-synthesized hormones?