Second Revision Workshop

Transformations, Week 22

Workshop AimsContinue to draw connections across the

moduleProvoke refinements in your revision strategiesThink through the remaining topics – some key

pointsDiscuss strategies in the exam roomThe Exam

When? 9.30 am Monday 18 JuneWhere? Butterworth Hall

Topic by Topic Revision 1Work in small groups on one of the following

topics:Beyond the nuclear family; Adoption; Timing Parenthood; Contraception; Abortion; Infertility; IVF; Reprogenetics; Gamete Donation; Surrogacy

Identify which module concepts are particularly relevant from the following list (2 slides). Then try to come up with three bullet points that reflect major issues/learning points for this topic that you would need to keep in mind when revising it. Can you think of any authors/studies relevant to this topic?

You won’t remember everything – don’t worry, it’s not a test; it’s an opportunity.

Key Module ConceptsCivic/cultural vs ethnic nationalismReproduction (obviously). Biological reproduction and social

relations of reproduction.Gender divisions of labour in reproductionFertility rates – just risen again in UK – and infertilityCivic/cultural vs. ethnic nationalism and link to state policiesReproductive Rights ‘Foetal rights’New Reproductive Technologies, inc. IVF, surrogacy,

reprogenetics, gamete donationEthicsSaviour SiblingsParenting - biological or genetic

- gestational (mother only)- social- public and private

Module Concepts continued  Femininity and Motherhood; Masculinity and Fatherhood (‘to father’ = to reproduce genetically; ‘to mother’ = to

reproduce socially)Social birth (precedes actual birth)Timing Reproduction – biological time / social time ‘Fitness’ to parent, gendered discourses of ‘good’ parenting

(and ‘bad’)Possessive Individualism re claims over reproductive

potentialPsychoanalysis and the ‘reproduction of mothering’Recombinant familiesRace, ‘racialization’ and the politics of reproductionSurrogacy – partial and full, commercial & altruisticAdoption – inc. transracial, transnational, lesbian and gay

Strategies in the Exam RoomScenario 1: Your time management has gone

awry and there’s only 10 minutes left when you’re only half way through your planned answer to the last question.

What do you do now, and what could you have done earlier?

Scenario 2: You got started ok but now your mind’s gone blank and you feel you can’t remember anything.

What do you do now, and what could you have done earlier?

Topic by Topic Revision 2Work in small groups on a different one of the

following topics:Beyond the nuclear family; Adoption; Timing Parenthood; Contraception; Abortion; Infertility; IVF; Reprogenetics; Gamete Donation; Surrogacy

From what you can recall about each topic, identify which module concepts are particularly relevant from the list. Then try to come up with three bullet points that reflect major issues/learning points for this topic that you would need to keep in mind when revising it, together with relevant authors/research.

Beyond the Nuclear FamilyNew types of parenting – cohabiting, single

parents, gay and lesbian parents, recombinant families – challenging ‘norm’ of heterosexual, nuclear and biological family.

 Family values lobby argue lone mothers choosing to parent without men and reproducing underclass – but is just choice?

Identity projects of new group of middle class professional lone mothers reproduces negative discourse for working class

 NRTs providing new routes to gay and lesbian parenthood

Discourse that gay and lesbian parents ‘unfit’, and critique

Campion: fitness to parent cannot be reduced to sexuality

Dunne: far from being inherently dysfunctional, lesbian parents are rethinking gendered parenthood in creative ways.

 

Adoption Legal process transferring family belonging &

legal rights & responsibilities from birth parent(s) to adoptive parents

Fewer babies available for adoption than in past, main ‘source’ is children living in state institutions

Media controversy about need to protect children but also right of state to remove children from birth parents

Campion: Adoptive parents have to be extraordinary as social workers seek to ‘compensate’ children

2005, 2007 legislation sought to impose equality - limited 

Transracial adoption: a practical solution or failing children?

Transnational adoption: a practical solution or new colonialism?

Timing ParenthoodTiming of fatherhood not seen as controversial as

timing of motherhoodDecision to become a mother (or try to become a

mother) is dependent on a range of social and interpersonal factors, as well as biological capacities

Both younger and older mothers find themselves subject to negative stereotypes as a result of their perceived deviation from reproductive norms.

The women both negotiate those norms in ways which simultaneously reinforce them and disrupt them.

The lived experiences of older and younger motherhood deviate substantially from the ideologically drive representations of those experiences.

ContraceptionHormonal contraceptives have ended the

necessary link between heterosex and reproduction.

Debate continues as to whether this liberates women or whether it subjects them to contraceptive technologies with health risks and side effects.

Contraception is still mainly seen as women’s responsibility, and all the recently developed methods work through women’s bodies. – can be seen as positive and negative.

Differences between women are important when it comes to accessing contraception, and the spectre of eugenics lingers – need to consider who is encouraged to use which method; who are ‘good’ and ‘bad’ users.

AbortionA very contested issueThe debate is frequently articulated in terms

of competing rights (woman / foetus)UK’s limited access to abortion granted on

grounds of safeguarding women’s health, not right to choose

Abortion policy / practice tells us a lot about normative ideas of what constitutes a ‘good mother’ and the ‘right’ kind of reproduction.

The right not to have to choose abortion is as significant as the right to choose

There is tension between feminists and disability activists over abortion

InfertilityDefinitions of infertility are contested – not a static

conditionVery little is known about the causes of infertility

(and most in undiagnosed)The experience of infertility can be very traumatic

(not least because of the normative status of parenthood in relation to gender identity)

It is important to consider infertility from a global perspective – issues of reproductive health care; social impacts of infertility; gender relations

Feminists have focused on the issue of infertility as a means of challenging normative ideas about what a ‘proper’ woman is and to emphasise primary reproductive health care / bodily autonomy etc…

IVFIVF is a new reproductive technology that is

highly in demand from patientsIVF is regulated in the UK by the HEFAIt both affirms, and disrupts, normative

reproductive categoriesThe practice of IVF places huge responsibility

onto women for both the everyday work of IVF and its outcomes.

It has been the focus of considerable opposition from both feminists and non-feminists, but on very different grounds.

IVF is a pre-requisite for other NRTs, such as ICSI; pre-implantation genetic diagnosis; gestational surrogacy

ReprogeneticsHealth, illness, the body and a wide variety of

traits and characteristics are increasingly conceptualised in genetic terms

There is a lot of controversy around reproductive genetics – the status of the embryo; anxieties around ‘design’; links between reproductive genetics and stem cell research

Genetic testing of embryos is likely to continue to expand, creating new choices, possibilities, dilemmas and responsibilities for women.

Raises important ethical questions about what a life worth living is (re: exclusion of embryos with disabilities etc)

Gamete Donationegg and sperm donation appear to be parallel

bodily goods, but reflect ‘different regimes of body commodification for men and women’ (Almeling 2007: 319)

Eggs and embryos are valued and conceptualized very differently by women

The act of donation (and the justifications available to donors) is profoundly gendered

The demand for eggs (for fertility treatment and for research) reinforces the responsibilities placed on women to be mothers, to be altruistic and to be responsible for health care

Surrogacythe term ‘surrogacy’ incorporates a wide

range of practices / reproductive relationships

biological ‘facts’ are deployed in highly problematic ways in resolving / making sense of surrogacy arrangements

The practice of surrogacy raises concerns about the commodification of women / babies; the commercialization of reproduction; the exploitation of (some) women

Parenthood is multiple, but not all parents are evaluated equally

Finally…

Best of luck with your revision and the examI hope you’ve enjoyed the moduleI have – you’ve been a great group to teach!