TRANSLATING SCIENCE TO THE PEOPLE - UPDATING THE NEW-OUR-BODIES-OURSELVES

This paper asks how to recognize and benefit from ''situated knowledge s.'' How can some of the split, contradictory, and unequal knowledge p ositions become coordinated and mutually beneficial? To do this, I con sider how to provide women with the ability to evaluate and adopt birt h control technology without at the same time adopting and reproducing the cultural messages and social arrangements embedded in it. I draw examples from the birth control chapter of the 1984 and 1992 editions of The New Our Bodies, Ourselves. First, I consider feminist critiques of the language of sex and reproduction. Their critiques underlie the transformed images about the menstrual cycle and contraception in the update of ''Birth Control.'' Second, I review how medical scientists have redefined ''efficacy'' and explore the meaning of these changes f or a handbook written for women who are making decisions about birth c ontrol. Finally, I use these two examples to consider the wider implic ations of translating science to the people and of coordinating and be nefiting from situated knowledges.