26 RüdigerKunow
assert that intersectional research should and could "gray the cyborg"
(99) by better attending to intersections of age and technology,
especially in the differential access to technologies which might
rejuvenate the aging body—an issue that I will revisit in the section on
"ParablesoftheFuture."^17 Therefore,itmaymakesensetospeakofbio-
intersectionality; the term can serve as a critical lens which highlights
andenablesustoanalyzethedifferentialdistributionoflifechancesand
multiply-constituted degrees and forms of vulnerability, individual and
collective, all of which are based on the real or supposed biological
characteristicsofpeople.
Raceandgenderarecertainlythemostobviousexamplesofbiology-
based constructs of individual or collective identity and thus of bio-
intersectionality. They also remind us that biology-based constructs of
individualorcollectiveidentitycanandhavehistoricallybeenmorphing
into outright biologism^18 and in this determinate and determining
mannerperformedpernicioussocialandculturalwork.Forgoodreason,
therefore,raceandgenderarealsocrucialandhighlycontestedsitesfor
U.S.-Americancultureandsocietywhichexhibitalonganduglyhistory
of "incorporating" human life into the differential organization of
collective life and of imprinting privilege and discrimination on the
biological endowment of human beings. This material history of
essentially socio-cultural concepts cannot be discussed here except for
pointing out that in both areas, the exogenous attribution "of forcibly
imposed identity images.. ." (Hanssen 156) has relied heavily on the
biology of the human body. And concerning the latter, racism and
sexism have been particularly obsessed with the visible exterior of
humanbeingsandtheirbodies,theskinandvisiblebodilyfeatures.
Race and gender remind us furthermore how much the biological
endowment of human beings is also a meaning endowment. As
(^17) In ''Graying the Cyborg: New Directions in Feminist Analyses of Aging,
Science and Technology,'' Joyce and Mamo assert that intersectional research
pointsto the differential access oftechnologieswhich may modify and enhance
thehumanbody.
(^18) For an elaborate exploration of biologism, especially in this context of
contemporary biotechnology cf. Meloni, esp. 731-33, 741-43; Skinner, David.
''Racialized Futures: Biologism and the Changing Politics of Identity.''Social
StudiesofScience36.3(2006):459-88.Print.