Genital( * )Panic

Workshop: Apr 9, 2022. 15:00 - 16:30

curated by Frederike Sperling

Welcome to the Genital(*) Panic clinic – an itinerant gynecological station for unruly bodies by Mary Maggic. It conducts ongoing research into the effects of environmental toxicity on sex and gender in a series of public interventions and workshops. You are warmly invited to enter the facility and/or attend any of the events. For all updates on the events, please visit our website.

“Genital(*) Panic” responds to the observation that the pollution of the environment through plasticizers has endocrine disrupting effects on bodies: Chemicals ingested by our bodies can result in “reproductive toxicity”, i.e. the queering of the binary body on a molecular level. Scientists measure this effect with the anogenital distance (AGD; distance between anus and genitals, considered longer in male read bodies). They have found that the AGD has been steadily decreasing over time. Is it possible, then, that we are all approaching intersex, other- sex beings? And how have our bodies always been queer?

An archive of disobedient bodies, the Genital(*) Panic clinic sheds light on the queering realities of the polluted planet and urges for a new understanding of bodies beyond normative taxonomies.