Feminist Data as Resistance: Algorithmic Bias and Bodily Autonomy in Contemporary Media Art

Abstract

This paper analyzes the intersection of feminist resistance and anti-gender movements within contemporary media art, with a specific focus on algorithmic bias and bodily autonomy. Through case studies and discourse analysis of three artworks, the paper highlights how the right-wing actors exploit technology to dismantle bodily autonomy through tools such as surveillance, reproductive monitoring and the digital weaponization of meme culture.  The analysis addresses three core research questions: How do anti-gender actors exploit digital technologies to enforce oppressive gender norms? In what ways can feminist artworks function as counter-systems to algorithmic bias? What strategies enable effective transnational feminist resistance in digital spaces? Methodologically speaking, our study employs visual discourse analysis of three case studies: Caroline Sinders’ Feminist Data Set (algorithmic resistance), Mary Maggic’s Open Source Estrogen (biopolitical hacking), and @the.hormone.monster's meme activism (cultural subversion). Through these cases, the analysis reveals how feminist artists appropriate surveillance tools, medical technologies, and viral media to both expose systemic harms and prototype liberatory alternatives. The primary contribution lies in theorizing feminist media art as a dual-action resistance, simultaneously deconstructing oppressive technologies while building emancipatory infrastructures. The findings demonstrate that such artistic interventions offer concrete pathways to reclaim bodily autonomy from anti-gender techno-politics. The future of bodily autonomy lies in treating data as a tool for collective liberation, demonstrating how feminist media art can fuel large-scale resistance to anti-gender technologies.