Identity and individualism A03

reproductive control as identity erasure

roe vs wade in 1973, strengthened the resistance from the pro life movement with bolder statements on protecting ‘potential life for female bodies’

the Hyde amendment in 1976 banned federal funding from abortion showing the strength of this pro life movement and highlighting government conservative intervention

nazi eugenics and reproductive control

rigid roles of the religious right

promotion of traditional gender roles and domesticity e.g martha, wife, handmaid

this reduces personal identity down to function based categories, e.g matches trad wife and housewife ideals.

real world patriarchal systems

puritan new England women supressed in favour of obedience and silence

Taliban regimen forces women to cover themselves, women therefore have no public identity

orwells fear of confromity post war

orwell feared even democratic modern governments may drift towards mass comfromity where people are stripped of their unique selves, e.g his essay ‘politics and the english language’ he argues ‘orthodoxy means not thinkinh’