Detox Me? : Environmental Attunement Among My Cancer Kin

Abstract

This thesis offers an autoethnographic analysis of the digital app Detox Me in a context where I am reading and engaging with environmental toxins literature such as Sandra Steingraber’s Living Downstream: An Ecologist’s Personal Investigation of Cancer and the Environment. I analyze Steingraber’s suggested practice for confronting the carcinogens in our lives, a process she calls “discovering our ecological roots” and describe a new practice that I developed throughout my research and use of Detox Me. I argue that we have outgrown Steingraber’s practice and that a new process is required in order to reflect the experiences of young digital natives like me who are navigating an increasingly toxic world. I weave together my analysis of Detox Me, my personal experiences with cancer and chemicals, and my readings of feminist and environmental literature to develop a new practice for confronting carcinogens. When I completed my weaving, I found that three essential steps emerged from my experience confronting the carcinogens in my life. I conclude that, first, it is essential for me to reject ideas of purity. Next, I have to make stronger connections with human and non-human others in my life. Lastly, I have to open my senses and emotions to a new kind of attunement