Woman In The Body: A Cultural Analysis Of Reproduction

Control of reproductive decisions of black women is a highly prevalent a form of racial oppression in America. Due to this form of control, the meaning of reproductive liberty in America has been significantly altered. These issues are addressed in Dorothy Roberts’ Killing the Black Body. The novel demonstrates the way in which black women were consistently devalued as a tool for reproductive means, which in itself was a form of racial oppression. The novel also provides the reader with insight as to how experiences of black women since times of slavery have drastically changed the present day connotation of reproductive freedom.

The author’s use of rhetoric and rhetorical devices is viewed as her credibility and evidence that supports the themes, feminism and birth control. “In 1910, 4 percent of Americans

replacement of stereotyped images of black womanhood with those that are self defined, 4) black women’s activism, and 5) sensitivity to black sexual politics. The first three themes correlate to black motherhood and living in a binary environment, one in which black people are the oppressed and white

How does a person come to decide if they want to be a parent or not? The formation of procreative identities in men and women is a complex topic with many influencing factors. Tamara G. Coon Sells set out to distinguish what some of these factors were in her study of 14 unmarried, childfree graduate students (2013, p. 133). Analyzing the narrative submissions of her sample, she was able to pinpoint 5 different themes impacting the development of both men’s and women’s procreative identity: biological, deterrents, fear, hesitation, and pressure (p. 144).

Robin Yates’s paper, “Pregnancy and Childbirth, The 1800’s vs. Now: What to Expect When You’re Not Expecting,” was filled with many clear points on the advancement of labor and medicine since the 1800s. This essay was filled with interesting and grabbing facts; however, the structure of the essay needs more support.

When Sarah was out of the bed and standing her whole attitude changed, she was more comfortable and relaxed. Sarah went on to give birth on her hands and knees, there were no complications and the perineum was intact. The student felt that through the use of different positions, listening and observing, she had empowered Sarah to have a normal birth. The two specific topics the author will analyse are positions in labour and the role the midwife plays in facilitating choice.

The early twentieth century was a turning point in American history-especially in regards to the acquisition of women's rights. While the era was considered to be prosperous and later thought to be a happy-go-lucky time, in actuality, it was a time of grave social conflict and human suffering (Parish, 110). Among those who endured much suffering were women. As Margaret Sanger found out, women, especially those who were poor, had no choice regarding pregnancy. The only way not to get pregnant was by not having sex- a choice that was almost always the husband's. This was even more true in the case of lower-class men for whom, 'sex was the poor man's only luxury' (Douglas, 31). As a nurse who assisted in delivering

In Killing the Black Body, Dorothy Roberts describes the history of African-American women and the dehumanizing attempts to control their reproductive lives. Beginning with slavery, to the early beginning of birth control policy, to the sterilization abuse of Black women during the 1960s and 1970s, continuing with the current campaign to inject Norplant and Depo-Provera along with welfare mothers, Roberts argues that the systematic, institutionalized denial of reproductive freedom has uniquely marked Black women’s history in America.

Most Americans associate hospitals to be the standard place where women can give birth. However, women did not always deliver in hospitals. Gynecology, the medical practice dealing with the female reproductive system, did not emerge until the early nineteenth century. Before doctors came along, women used to hire midwives to deliver babies in the comfort of their own homes. In this paper I will examine the social, political, and scientific implications of how giving birth has transitioned from being a midwife’s job into that of a doctor’s. Furthermore, I will attempt to show how these implications intersect together to make birth a feminist issue. To support my argument, I will be referencing Tina Cassidy’s “The Dawn of the Doctors,” Abby Epstein’s documentary film The Business of Being Born, and Eesha Pandit’s article “America’s secret history of forced sterilization: Remembering a disturbing and not-so-distant past.” I argue that the processes surrounding birth are intersectional feminist issues because they are often manipulated by male figures pursuing money and authority, which ultimately compromises women’s health and power of choice.

In Karin A Martin’s article, “Giving birth like a girl” she writes that “in U.S. culture when we imagine women giving birth “she is screaming, yelling, self-centered, and demanding drugs or occasionally is numbed and passive from pain-killing medication.” Nonetheless, even though she was going through the breaking of my younger brothers arm not once did I her my mother scream out of pain or holler for drugs or yell at me or her nephew. She was unexplainably calm and followed the directions of the nurses. Martin also writes that despite Americans believing the norms that all women are angry during pregnancy, “white middle-class, heterosexual women actually worry about being nice, polite and kind.” When I questioned my mother about her

Does everybody think or feels the same about childbirth around the world? This question above is a question that has always been in my mind. Now that I got the opportunity of choosing a topic to do research. I decided to choose childbirth and culture. This research paper is going to talk about how different cultures and countries look a birth in an entirely different manner. Some look at birth as a battle and others as a struggle. And on some occasions, the pregnant mother could be known as unclean or in other places where the placenta is belief to be a guardian angel. These beliefs could be strange for us but for the culture in which this is being practiced is natural and a tradition. I am going to be introducing natural and c-section childbirth. And, the place of childbirth is going to be a topic in this essay. America is one country included in this research paper.

Bridgewater (2009) argues that an understanding of reproductive justice and the implications of its regulations in the U.S requires more than just a deep understanding of the laws that govern reproductive rights but also a very good understanding of the story of slavery. Slavery experiences of reproductive oppression, especially towards the Women of Color in the U.S, have fueled the movement for reproductive rights. The lack of freedom to reproductive rights and decisions has subjected the Women of Color to racism and sexism, creating stereotyped minds that they cannot be in control of their reproductive bodies. Bridgewater’s methodology was to

Anthropologist Emily Martins book” “The Woman in the Body: A Cultural Analysis of Reproduction” is an ethnographic study of male-oriented metaphors for women 's reproductive processes and women 's real thoughts about those processes through interviews.

Women make up just slightly over half the U.S population (US Census Bureau, 2010) and should not be even considered a part of a minority group. The female population should acquire the same equal research attention as men do, especially when it comes to health issues. The unavoidable, yet quite simple realities of breastfeeding, menstruation, menopause, along with pregnancy require special scrutiny from medical experts. Those medical specialties are generally referred as gynecologists or obstetrics, who focus on the exclusive needs of a female’s reproductive health throughout their lifespan. Historically, the health needs of women have been disregarded as well as their fundamental rights. However, over the past few decades, it has grabbed the media and the government’s attention causing some major changes in support of women’s rights and health care.

implications behind it. Science is supposed to be unbiased, straight to the facts, report only what is observed, field. Martin, being an anthropologist, certainly knows this fact and makes use of it. She sarcastically makes a subtitle in her article entitled Egg and Sperm: A Scientific Fairy tale. A scientific fairy tale is an oxymoron in itself, just further proving how wrong it is to have the egg and sperm portrayed in that