Thinking Through Post-constructionism: Reflections on (Reproductive) Disembodiment and Misfits
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.26522/ssj.v10i2.1352Keywords:
feminism, feminist theory, new materialism, post-constructionism, embodiment, disembodiment, misfits, politics of reproductionAbstract
In this article, I draw together feminist research on the distinct areas of assisted human reproduction (or new reproductive technology) and post-constructionist theory to examine some common methodological and epistemological issues fundamental for reproductive justice. I revisit the notion of technologically-assisted (reproductive) disembodiment (e.g., in vitro fertilization, surrogacy and egg donation) in light of theoretical developments in feminism, in particular post-constructionism. Specifically, I ask what light is shed on the paradox of reproduction (in particular disembodied reproduction) by feminist post-constructionism?
References
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Taylor, C. (1991). The ethics of authenticity. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Taylor, C. (1992). Multiculturalism and the “politics of recognition.” Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
Tyler, I. (2000). Reframing pregnant embodiment. In S. Ahmed, J. Kilby, C. Lury, M. McNeil & B. Skeggs (Eds.), Transformations: Thinking through feminism (pp. 288-302). London & New York: Routledge.
van der Tuin, I. (2008). Deflationary logic: Response to Sara Ahmed’s “Imaginary prohibitions: Some preliminary remarks on the founding gesture of the ‘New Materialism’.” European Journal of Women’s Studies, 15(4), 411-416.
van der Tuin, I. (2011). New feminist materialism. Women’s Studies International Forum, 34, 271-277.
Vickers, J. (1994). Notes toward a political theory of sex and power. In H. L. Radtke & H. J. Stam (Eds.), Power/gender: Social relations in theory and practice (pp. 174-193). London: Sage,.
Wendell, W. (1988). The flight from the rejected body. In A. Minas (Ed.), Gender basics: Feminist perspectives on women and men (pp. 56-64). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth.
Whitney, S. Y. (2011). Dependency relations: Corporeal vulnerability and norms of personhood in Hobbes and Kittay. Hypatia, 26, 3, 554-574.
Witt, C. (2011). The metaphysics of gender. New York: Oxford University Press.
Woodward, K., & Woodward, S. (2009). Why feminism matters: Feminism lost and found. Basingstoke, UK: Palgrave Macmillan.
Alaimo, S., & Hekman, S. (Eds.). (2008). Material feminisms. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press.
Åsberg, C., & Birke L. (2010). Biology is a feminist issue: Interview with Lynda Birke. The European Journal of Women's Studies, 17(4), 413-423.
Åsberg, C., Koobak, R., & Johnson, E. (2011). Beyond the humanist imagination. NORA – Nordic Journal of Feminist and Gender Research, 19(4), 218-230.
Barad, K. (2003). Post-human performativity: Toward an understanding of how matter comes to matter. Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society, 28(3), 801-831.
Barad, K. (2007). Meeting the universe halfway: Quantum physics and the entanglement of matter and meaning. Durham & London: Duke University Press.
Birke, L. (1986). Women, feminism and biology: The feminist challenge. Brighton, UK: Wheatsheaf Books.
Birke, L. (1999). Feminism and the biological body. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.
Boston Women’s Health Book Collective. (1973). Our bodies, ourselves. New York: Simon and Schuster.
Braidotti, R. (2013). The Posthuman. Cambridge: Polity.
Brodribb, S. (1986). Off the pedestal and onto the block? Motherhood, reproductive technologies, and the Canadian state. Canadian Journal of Women and the Law, 1(2), 407-423.
Brodribb, S. (1993). Nothing mat(t)ers: A feminist critique of postmodernism. Toronto: James Lorimer & Company.
Brown, W. (1993). Wounded attachments. Political Theory, 21(3), 390-410.
Burfoot, A. (2014). Revisiting Mary O’Brien – Reproductive consciousness and liquid maternity. Socialist Studies/Etudes socialistes, 10(1), 174-190.
Coole, D., & Frost S. (Eds.). (2010). New materialisms: Ontology, agency, and politics. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.
De Beauvoir, S. (1949/1989). The second sex. (H. M. Parshley, Trans.). New York: Vintage Books.
Eistenstein, Z. (1988). The female body and the law. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.
Fausto-Sterling, A. (2000). Sexing the body: Gender politics and the construction of sexuality. New York: Basic Books.
Fausto-Sterling, A. (2005). The bare bones of sex: Part I, sex and gender. Signs, 30(2), 1491-1528.
Garland-Thomson, R. (2011). Misfits: A feminist materialist disability concept. Hypatia, 26(3), 591-609.
Grasswick, H. (2013), Feminist social epistemology. In E. N. Zalta (Ed.), The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Retrieved from http://plato.stanford.edu/archives/spr2013/entries/feminist-social-epistemology/.
Hadd, W. (1991). A womb with a view: Women as mothers and the discourse of the body. Berkeley Journal of Sociology, 36, 165–175.
Haraway, D. (1991). Situated knowledges: The science question in feminism and the privilege of partial perspective. In Simians, cyborgs and women: The Reinvention of Nature (pp. 183-201). London: Free Association Books.
Harding, S. (1998). Is science multicultural? Postcolonialism, feminisms and epistemologies. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press.
Hartsock, N. (1983). The feminist standpoint: Developing the ground for a specifically feminist historical materialism. In S. Harding & M. Hintikka (Eds.), Discovering reality (pp. 283-310). Boston, MA: D. Reidel.
Harstock, N. (1998). The feminist standpoint revisited & other essays. Boulder, CO: Westview Press.
Hartsock, N. (1999). Mary O’Brien’s contributions to contemporary feminist theory. Canadian Woman Studies, 18(4), 62-68.
Hearne, J. (1999). Mary O’Brien…certainly the most important single intellectual influence. Canadian Woman Studies, 18(4), 13-17.
Hinton, P., & Liu, X. (2015). The im/possibility of abandonment in new materialist ontologies. Australian Feminist Studies, 30(84), 128-145.
Irni, S. (2013). Sex, power and ontology: Exploring the performativity of hormones. NORA – Nordic Journal of Feminist and Gender Research, 21(1), 41-56.
Kirby, V. (1997). Telling flesh: The substance of the corporeal. New York: Routledge.
Kirby, V. (2008). Natural convers(at)ions: Or, what if culture was really nature all along? In S. Alaimo & S. Hekman (Eds.), Material Feminisms (pp. 214-236). Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press.
Lam, C. (2015). New reproductive technologies and disembodiment: Feminist and material resolutions. Dorchester, UK: Ashgate.
Lykke, N. (2010a). The timeliness of post-constructionism. NORA – Nordic Journal of Feminist and Gender Research, 18(2), 131-136.
Lykke, N. (2010b). Feminist studies: A guide to intersectional theory, methodology and writing. New York: Routledge.
Mitchell, L. M. (2001). Baby’s first picture: Ultrasound and the politics of fetal subjects. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.
Mooney, A., & Evans, B. (Eds). (2007). Globalization: The key concepts. New York: Routledge.
O’Brien, M. (1981). The politics of reproduction. Boston, MA: Routledge & Kegan Paul.
O’Brien, M. (1982). Feminist theory and dialectical logic. In O. Nannerl, O. Keohane, M. Z. Rosaldo & B. C. Gelpi (Eds.), Feminist theory: A critique of ideology (pp. 99-112). Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Taylor, C. (1991). The ethics of authenticity. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Taylor, C. (1992). Multiculturalism and the “politics of recognition.” Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
Tyler, I. (2000). Reframing pregnant embodiment. In S. Ahmed, J. Kilby, C. Lury, M. McNeil & B. Skeggs (Eds.), Transformations: Thinking through feminism (pp. 288-302). London & New York: Routledge.
van der Tuin, I. (2008). Deflationary logic: Response to Sara Ahmed’s “Imaginary prohibitions: Some preliminary remarks on the founding gesture of the ‘New Materialism’.” European Journal of Women’s Studies, 15(4), 411-416.
van der Tuin, I. (2011). New feminist materialism. Women’s Studies International Forum, 34, 271-277.
Vickers, J. (1994). Notes toward a political theory of sex and power. In H. L. Radtke & H. J. Stam (Eds.), Power/gender: Social relations in theory and practice (pp. 174-193). London: Sage,.
Wendell, W. (1988). The flight from the rejected body. In A. Minas (Ed.), Gender basics: Feminist perspectives on women and men (pp. 56-64). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth.
Whitney, S. Y. (2011). Dependency relations: Corporeal vulnerability and norms of personhood in Hobbes and Kittay. Hypatia, 26, 3, 554-574.
Witt, C. (2011). The metaphysics of gender. New York: Oxford University Press.
Woodward, K., & Woodward, S. (2009). Why feminism matters: Feminism lost and found. Basingstoke, UK: Palgrave Macmillan.
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Published
2016-12-19
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Consuming Intimacies: Bodies, Labour, Care, and Social Justice
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