#PPP
The 3D printing community and women’s health.
Digital objects are in demand1 – art, children’s toys, fashion items, guns2, naughty ornaments, and countless machine parts – and it’s just the beginning3. As of 2022, the cost of a 3D printer is as low as 100€4. With ever-improving user-friendly interfaces, these computer-numerically-controlled machines are making appearances in homes, schools5, and even in space6.
As 3d printing communities grew bigger, some began collecting them all in one place, creating a digital library. This was a platform for all engineers, hobbyists, and DIYers to freely share, edit, remix7, and repost. Thingiverse*, Cults, GrabCAD, Thangs3D, MyMiniFactory, Printables, and even NASA8 are all examples of such online repositories established in the last decade9.
*Thingiverse.com was first established in 2008 by MakerBot industries, a child company of Stratasys10. What made Thingiverse different and popular among online communities was that was dedicated to sharing user-created digital files, providing primarily free, open-source hardware designs11. It was a notable difference compared to existing CAD resource libraries, which were predominantly a marketplace for CNC engineers and/or digital artists.
Like any young online community, most 3D printing community websites depend heavily on user content uploads. At the time being12, the user base is leaning toward the male population. While no repository or marketplace has come forth with statistics on its user’s genders, one could easily find the imbalance in the contents of any library.
Results for search term “girl“(left) and “boy“(right). Sorted by relevance.
Images on the left display explicit designs while the right shows little to none.
(Source: Cults3d)
This phenomenon is again observed in another 3D object repository. While 900+ example designs of “battery case” is accessible, only a handful of examples of “tampons” related items are displayed.
Interesting to observe, especially since batteries and tampons have almost indistinguishable sizes and shapes.
(Source: Printables)
Out of 8 results for the search term “tampons”(“tampon case” did not return any results), two are actually related. Out of the two, one creator describes a “discrete” container for tampons, disguised as a marker pen.
As aforementioned, these communities and sites are relatively young, some with very little moderation13. There is still a possibility for them to develop into gender-neutral, gender-positive communities. In the meantime, I believe encouragement for all genders to participate in growing the community and content is necessary.
An example could be creating designs for women’s health, as the main benefit of 3D printing can be found in accessibility and cutting down costs of producing objects. During the peak of the recent COVID-19 pandemic, a protective face-covering aid14 was designed and distributed among communities. It invited anyone with a printer at home to participate and donate health-related items to those in need15.
#Period Positivity
#Period Poverty
Promoting positive menstruation ideas in digital form.
I’ve noticed two things:
1. People carry tampons in their bags, without proper containers.
2. Tampons are shaped like bullets.
And the rest came to me naturally.
More to update, stay tuned.
– .stl files to upload
1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/3D_printing_marketplace
2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/3D_printed_firearm
3. As of November 2012, 25,000 designs had been uploaded to Thingiverse; by June 2013, the total exceeded 100,000. The 400,000th Thing was published on July 19, 2014.
4. amazon.de
5. https://www.eduporium.com/blog/6-best-3d-printers-for-education-in-2022/
6. https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/news/3d-printing-in-space-long-duration-spaceflight-applications
7. “Remix Culture” is at the core of 3D printing communities. Users are often encouraged to edit other people’s designs and share the improved versions.
8. https://nasa3d.arc.nasa.gov/models
9. The earliest was Thingiverse, established in 2008.
10. First and leading 3D printing technology company
11. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thingiverse
12. October 2022
13. Thingiverse.com is notorious for being constantly unusable, due to the lack of updates and improvements on the UI.
14. Prusa Face Shield
15. Dutch COVID-19 Prusa Protective Face Shields Group
Hess Jeon 