Troubling motherhood : maternality in global politics /
Hall, Lucy B.,editor.
Weissman, Anna L.,editor.
Shepherd, Laura J.,editor.
"In global politics, women's bodies are policed, objectified, surveilled, and feared, with particular attention paid to both their met or unmet procreative potential. While the significance of motherhood varies across cultures, it is, as this book argues, connected not just to gender and sexuality, but also to religion and nationality. Reproduction is central to the flourishing of any nation or culture, and therefore motherhood is a major signifier of women's relationship to the state. This is so much the case that states enact laws about which women can bear children and have supported sterilization efforts in cases where women are not deemed appropriate bearers of the nation. States also legislate reproductive technologies, adoption, and government support for parenting. By considering representations and narratives of maternity, this volume shows how practices of global politics shape and are shaped by the gendered norms and institutions that underpin motherhood. Motherhood matters in global politics. Yet, the diverse ways in which performances and practices of motherhood are constituted by and are constitutive of other dimensions of political life are frequently obscured, or assumed to be of little interest to scholars, policymakers, and practitioners. Featuring innovative and diverse chapters on the politics of motherhood as an institution, this collection shows that maternality is troubled, complicated, and heterogeneous in global politics. Thus, performances and practices of motherhood warrant closer and more sustained scrutiny. This book builds on work by feminist international relations scholars, extending into disruptive spaces of queer theory, literary critique, and post-colonial studies." -- Publisher's website
Includes bibliographical references and index.
1. Motherhood and Maternality in Global Politics / Anna L. Weissman and Lucy B. Hall -- 2. A Mother's Violence in Global Politics: An Interrogation of Violent Femininity and Motherhood Narratives / Katerina Krulisova -- 3. Protestant paramilitary mothering: Mothers and daughters in the Northern Irish Troubles / Sandra McEvoy -- 4. Stigmatized acts of motherhood / Jamie J. Hagen -- 5. Logics of Protection and the Discursive Construction of Refugee Fathers / Lucy B. Hall -- 6. Bearing Peace and War: Sex, Motherhood, and the Treaty of the Pyrenees / Laura Sjoberg -- 7. Ideal Citizens and Family Values: The Politics of Reproductive Fitness / Anna L. Weissman -- 8. Mother Knows Best? Critical Maternal Ethics and the Rape Clause / Rebecca Wilson -- 9. Queering Reproductive Aid / Corinne Mason -- 10. Troubling Conceptions of Motherhood: State Feminism and Political Agency of Women in the Global South / Anwar Mhajne and Crystal Whetstone -- 11. Feminist Politics Still Needs Motherhood / Amanda Watson -- 12. Privatized Bodies in Public Locations: C-Sections, Toddler Meltdowns and the Neoliberal Gaze / Penny Griffin -- 13. Raising children in strangeness: cosmopolitan mothering and domestic helpers in expatriate families / Catherine Goetze -- 14. Celebrity global motherhood: Maternal care and cosmopolitan obligation / Annika Bergman Rosamond -- 15. Earthborn: Maternity and Natality on a Hurting Planet / Cara Daggett -- 16. Speaking from the Margins of Motherhood: A Politics (M)otherwise / Sara C. Motta.
"In global politics, women's bodies are policed, objectified, surveilled, and feared, with particular attention paid to both their met or unmet procreative potential. While the significance of motherhood varies across cultures, it is, as this book argues, connected not just to gender and sexuality, but also to religion and nationality. Reproduction is central to the flourishing of any nation or culture, and therefore motherhood is a major signifier of women's relationship to the state. This is so much the case that states enact laws about which women can bear children and have supported sterilization efforts in cases where women are not deemed appropriate bearers of the nation. States also legislate reproductive technologies, adoption, and government support for parenting. By considering representations and narratives of maternity, this volume shows how practices of global politics shape and are shaped by the gendered norms and institutions that underpin motherhood. Motherhood matters in global politics. Yet, the diverse ways in which performances and practices of motherhood are constituted by and are constitutive of other dimensions of political life are frequently obscured, or assumed to be of little interest to scholars, policymakers, and practitioners. Featuring innovative and diverse chapters on the politics of motherhood as an institution, this collection shows that maternality is troubled, complicated, and heterogeneous in global politics. Thus, performances and practices of motherhood warrant closer and more sustained scrutiny. This book builds on work by feminist international relations scholars, extending into disruptive spaces of queer theory, literary critique, and post-colonial studies." -- Publisher's website
Motherhood
Human reproduction.
Women's rights.
Women