Motherhood

Reproductive rights def

Composite of human rights that adress sexual and reproductive health

They are protected by guidelines

Instrumental to achieve goals

Important to protect dignity and human rights

Categories of reproductive rights

Reproductive selfdetermination

Sexual and reproductive health services information, and education

Equality and nondiscrimination

Objective of Gender Unicorn

Provide a breakdown of the differences between gender identity, expression, biological sex, physical attraction, and emotional attraction

Dimension of the Gender Unicorn

Identity

Expression

Sex

Physical attraction

Emotional attraction

Why is motherhood political

It reproduces values, norms, and culture → deal citizens

Perception of motherhood varies depending on the identity or social status of the mom

It is a patriarchal institution (cis/heterosexual)

Politicization of mothers

Materialist feminism → Boundaries between public and private spheres are blurred

Social institutions → what do we expect of women

Association with fertility & reproductive rights

Relation of hunter-gatherer societies & women

Women held a higher status

In charge of agriculture → took more time and make them in charge of caloric supply

Communal childcare by elder women

First country to legalize abortion?

USSR, but later forbidden by Stalin

Status of countries when legalizing abortion:

China as a way to control the rapid growing population (one-child policy, too)

Cuba -> Cuban rev.

Mexico & Turkey; seculariztaion
At beginning, they were the comunists who seeked abortion

2000s trends in abortion

Overall, there is trend in legalizing and widening the access
US, Nicaragua, Argentina and Poland with a tendency of the prohibition of abortion

Iran, Latinamerica, Sub-saharian tendency to legalize

What is the Roe v Wade?

14^th amendment that contemplates a women’s decision to terminate its pregnancy. (1973-2022)

Repronormative reproduction def.

Reproduction of those who are in the hegemonic culture and can reproduce ideal citizens

Characteristics of western biology

Essentialism
Historically dichotomized
Binary and deterministic
Based on reproduction
Butler→ gender is performative → normativity of sexual practices reflects procreative gender roles

How is the dichotomy of women/men seen by Western Biology

Female: produce fewer and larger gaemtes (eggs) → motherhood is cisgender and procreation legitimizes sex
Male: produce many small highly motile gamets (sperm)
Homosexuality: contrary sexual instinct

Def of mothering

Actions and experience of nurturing
No homogenous, universal or apolitical conception of mothering/parenting

How is the other related to motherhodd

Non-mothers: Anyone outside of normative motherhood is socially or legally deemed unfit to mother
Neg. impact of idealized figure of mother → less support to “others”

Other in sterilization

Normative: hospitals
Other: identity groups targeted

Forced sterilisation

Provide insight in who is considered a socially acceptable reproducer
Women in minority races and ethnicities have experienced the lion’s share of discriminatory population control

Examples of targeting population through forced sterilisation

Poor, working-class, undereduacted
American eugenics → easier access to sterilisation to black women
The Roma group in Europe

Difficulties in accessing sterilisation

Younger, childfree women rejection
Reproduction is fundamental to women’s bodies
Rules are enforced more strictly on women on those which reproduction is socially desirable

Science and motherhood → cultural characterization of pathology

Comes from the pseudoscience of race science → scientific racism
Eugenic ideas still affect and contribute to the def. of Motherhood

Characteristics of queer motherhood

Question socia and legal forces that based on identity (dis)incentivize, privilege, subsidize, and require maternity
Dissolve limitating categories
Unsexual parenting
Expand the concept of reproductive rights → right to procreate and not
Same-sex adoption
Full access to abortion, contraception, and voluntary sterilization

What is the “implicit fertility policy” and what role does scientific racism play?

Fertility correlates with poverty → as pover/less educated you’re, you are more fertile

What was the “120 rule”?

A woman's age multiplied by the number of her children had to total 120, or she could not be sterilized