Reproductive Rights Issues in Popular Media: International Perspectives

237 Pages·2017·1.647 MB·English

by  Waltraud Maierhofer, Beth Widmaier Capo, (eds.)

Reproductive Rights Issues
in Popular Media
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Reproductive Rights Issues
in Popular Media
International Perspectives
Edited by WaltRaud MaIeRhofeR
and Beth WIdMaIeR CaPo
McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers
Jefferson, North Carolina
ISBN (print) 978-1-4766-6940-3
ISBN (ebook) 978-1-4766-3006-9
lIBRaRyofCongRessCataloguIng-In-PuBlICatIondata
BRItIshlIBRaRyCataloguIngdataaReavaIlaBle
© 2017 Waltraud Maierhofer and Beth Widmaier Capo. all rights reserved
No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form
or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying
or recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system,
without permission in writing from the publisher.
front cover photograph by Willem velthoven for Women on Web
Printed in the united states of america
McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers
Box 611, Jefferson, North Carolina 28640
www.mcfarlandpub.com
InmemoryofIngeborgh.solbrig(1923–2016),
professorofgermanattheuniversityofIowa,1975to1994
acknowledgments
Beth Widmaier Capo thanks nick Capo for his support
and editorial expertise.
Waltraud Maierhofer is deeply grateful for the encour-
agement and conversations on contraception- related topics
with david R. sheff. Work on this project was inspired by
all the highly engaged students in her seminars on “Contra -
ception across time and Cultures” at the university of Iowa.
the editors would like to acknowledge daniel Korunka
for his editorial assistance.
vi
table of Contents
Acknowledgments vi
Introduction: Representing Reproductive Rights 1
Beth WIdMaIeR CaPo
Part 1. Contraceptives in the Media:
Spreading the Story
Propagating Progress and Circumventing harm: 11
Reconciling References to Contraceptives
in British television and Cinema of the 1960s
JessICa BoRge
Pill and Remote Control: Politics of Contraception 29
in Contemporary u.s. Quality television
MaRKus sChleICh and Jonas nesselhauf
a Romantic steroid or a great Performance? visual Culture 48
and the Pill
JaMIe WagMan
sex education and social Media: Contraception 65
in the digital age
Manon s. PaRRy
Part 2. Stories of Forced Adoption
In search of the new Woman and the Best Mother: unwanted 82
Pregnancy in gina Kaus’ literary and filmic Work
RegIna Range
Pregnant girls in the attic—no Choices: an analysis 100
of Patrice toye’s Little Black Spiders
KIRsten e. KuMPf Baele and sofIe deCoCK
vii
viii Table of Contents
Part 3. From Unplanned to Planned Pregnancies
from unwanted to Wanted Pregnancy: Pregnancy, abortion 117
and the end of the gdR in the film Jana and Jan (1992)
BelInda CaRstens- WICKhaM
finding humor in Birth Control: fiction and film 136
from hugh Mills to Matthias schweighöfer
WaltRaud MaIeRhofeR
Part 4. Abortion Across Cultures:
Reproductive Choice, Duty or Crime
When abortion Was Illegal: Remembrance and advocacy 156
in Recent films from Romania and Mexico—
and “I had an abortion” storytelling on the Web
WaltRaud MaIeRhofeR
the forbidden Pregnancy and the abandoned Children: 174
on Mo yan’s fiction about the one- Child Policy
and abortion in China
shelley W. Chan
Part 5. Legacies
Woman Rebel: Margaret sanger and american Popular Culture 190
Beth WIdMaIeR CaPo
from the Pill to the Pen to the Pill, again: Carl djerassi’s 206
discursive Constructions of Birth Control
WalteR gRünzWeIg
About the Contributors 223
Index 225
Introduction
Representing Reproductive Rights
Beth WIdMaIeR CaPo
“no woman can call herself free who does not own
and control her body. no woman can call herself free
until she can choose consciously whether she will
or will not be a mother.”
almost 100 years later, Margaret sanger’s words still encapsulate ongoing
debates about reproductive rights. the fundamental question of bodily auton-
omy and the ability to choose and plan reproduction are hotly debated even
as technology invents new forms of contraception, including the hormonal
vaginal ring and the contraceptive patch, pregnancy and childbirth enter the
realm of science fiction with Ivf and other interventions, and the reproduc-
tive health of transgender men complicates what were viewed as binary sys-
tems. Reproductive rights arguments occupy space in public discourse and
news media and have infiltrated global popular culture. film, television, fic-
tion, and other genres variously represent birth control and abortion, medi-
ating the issues for a wide- ranging global audience. social and cultural
conflicts are embedded in reproductive rights discourse, played out against
international social histories including communism in China and Romania1
or feminism in the united states.2this timely volume offers 12 essays inves-
tigating reproductive rights issues at the center of popular media around the
world.
Birth control and contraception, the attempt by humans to regulate and
control their fertility and prevent conception, have existed as long as recorded
history (Riddle). abortion, the conscious act of terminating a pregnancy, has
likewise been recorded since ancient times (Riddle). People in every society
have wanted and needed to control their fertility and plan their families for
1