GRSJ224/popularandpoliticalnarratives

Reproductive politics and the usage of representational politics are closely linked as it is one of the ways in which reproductive politics are transmitted through popular culture. Examples of this include representations through books, film, magazines, newspapers and other forms of media. Popular culture by definition from Bell Hooks is the “accumulation of cultural products such as music, art, literature, fashion, dance, film, television, and radio that are consumed primarily by non-elite groups such as the working, lower and middle class".

Introduction

Reproductive Health and Politics

Reproductive health is defined by the Word Health Organisation as the reproductive processes, functions and system at all stages of life. Reproductive health, therefore, "implies that people are able to have a responsible, satisfying and safe sex life that they have the capability to reproduce and the freedom to decide if, when and how often to do so.” In comparison, reproductive politics is defined by historian Rickie Solinger as referring “most basically” to the question: “who has the power over matters of pregnancy and its consequences?”

Representational Politics

Representational politics is the idea that individuals receive meaning, but remake it minute by minute; meaning is constantly changing; meaning cannot be fixed; it is imperative to critically interrogate the meanings of media representations. Representational politics is closely linked to popular culture - it is essentially the vehicle for cultural transmission of ideas.

Representation of Reproductive Politics through Various Media Forms

Popular literature and films have taken up some of the key debates surrounding reproduction in North America in the early 1980s to the contemporary movement; key examples that go against the typical conservative narrative of reproductive politics and teenage pregnancy.

Reproductive Politics in Noteworthy Books

Author Margaret Atwood

Popular literature as a form of media has been noted to transmit culturally dominant ideas about reproductive politics. For instance, Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale - written in the socio-politcal context where women's reproductive rights were starting to gain momentum in US, spurred by the election of Ronald Reagan and following the widespread growth of the 'pro-life' movement in the late 1970. This movement served to argue that women could not be full citizens unless they could control reproduction, pushing state legislatures to reform their abortion laws. Through The Handmaid's Tale, Margaret Atwood suggests that women's freedoms in the 1980s may not be as secure as modern women would like to think. Readers are given an idea of what the world would look like if women were seen only as "two-legged wombs". The oppressive social practices she describes in the novel have historical precedents; suggesting to readers that people must make sure that we do not allow these retrograde practices to regain power in our society.

Reproductive Politics in Noteworthy Films

Fox Movies Logo

Film as a form of media and product of popular culture has represented reproductive politics within a fictitious storyline. Many of these storylines feature the female lead finding out about their accidental pregnancy, and face with the conflict of whether or not they want to have an abortion, keep the baby or put it up for adoption. A more recent example brings us to the film Juno that was released in 2002. Juno does not play into typical conservative standpoints on teenage pregnancy and abortion. The film depicts how the main character, Juno, found out she was pregnant at sixteen. Her decision to keep the baby was accepted but not for religions reasons - as it is often portrayed in the media. Instead, it was represented as a humane decision, and the storyline highlights the struggle of a young girl’s dynamic emotional state when pregnant. Juno has been criticised for neglecting to endorse abortion, or to reflect that this is the option that is the most tenable in real life. Hence, film representation of reproductive politics demonstrates this conflict as more of a "right to choose" and how the woman's decision has evolved to become more independent, broadening the discussion instead of the focus on "pro-life" or "pro-choice".

These representations of pregnancy in media reflects the cultural understanding of reproductive politics within their respective sociocultural contexts throughout a specific point in history.

Connections to gender, sexuality, and social justice

Understanding the connections between reproductive and representational politics is detrimental through an examination of representations of pregnancy, infertility, abortion, and surrogacy in contemporary text and film. Fictional representations of reproduction allow us to discuss politics outside of reproductive frames such as "pro-life" and "pro-choice" by showing how reproduction is related to a variety of cultural tensions concerning gender, sexuality, race, citizenship, and (bio)technology. Producers are consciously constructing images and manipulating representations that perpetuate racism, sexism, homophobia - hooks suggest that being an “Enlightened Witness” means becoming critically vigilant about the world we live in and media we consume.

It is important to note that Latimer included how choices are always constrained by circumstances; rights can be taken away as given in the name of individual privacy or freedom; reproduction is always connected to citizenship and sexuality; and fundamentalist concepts of “right” and “wrong” can rarely make sense of reproductive decisions.

Fictional representations of reproductive politics not only reflect current politics, but help to produce them, shaping and influencing how these politics are understood popularly and culturally. Fiction, film, and popular culture, for instance, tap into the cultural and creative theories structuring the world in which they are produced. Sometimes narratives respond directly to reproductive debates in the media and elsewhere through their topics, tropes, and themes. Sometimes they use strategies, such as satire, fantasy, fragmentation, or fairytale, to play with traditional conventions regarding representation and reproduction (both symbolic and literal). These narrative techniques open up new ways of imagining reproductive practices and politics.