ABSTRACT
This chapter draws on analysis of a gynaecological simulator which was invented in the USA and studied as it was imported to Sweden. By employing first a diffractive reading of the simulator with Haraway’s term material-semiotic and Barad’s term of intra-action, the chapter shows that the anatomical body is produced in practice, in this case in the practice of examining the body. Then the chapter presents a refractive analysis of the norms embedded in practice for examining the gynaecological patient’s body during the gynaecological exam. The gynaecological body is produced through the gynaecological exam, and thereby the anatomy of the body is contingent on how that exam is conducted. This analysis challenges the idea that one could produce a valid anatomy or simulator that would model an objective, culturally independent, physical body. It begs the question of how one can reflect actively on the norms of knowledge phenomena when designing material representations of those phenomena.
