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This book addresses a topic that until recently had been underexplored: women who voluntarily forgo having and raising children. Grounded in a discourse approach, it examines reproductive decision-making in the context of pronatalist discourses, such as 'maternal instinct', 'biological clock' and 'having it all', that encourage procreation in some while discouraging it in others. To contextualize pronatalism sociohistorically, the book also examines the relationship between pro- and anti-natalist discourses that emerged during the 20th-century eugenics movement in the United States, especially its promotion of white middle-class women’s procreation while discouraging, or preventing, poor immigrant women and women of color from reproducing. Other topics include online communities devoted to childfreedom, 20th- and 21st-century women authors who wrote about their decision not to procreate, responses of academic women in the field of applied linguistics to questions about their childlessness, and a personal narrative of the author’s childlessness. The author calls for solidarity between mothers and 'nothers' (her term for childless women) to defy the policing of women’s bodies worldwide.
Benesch has produced a hugely powerful and captivating book that informs and challenges. Stunningly written, it draws on literature, popular culture, empirical data, and personal experience to explore 'notherhood' from multiple discursive perspectives. It is a ground-breaking work that will appeal to readers well beyond applied linguistics. An extraordinary contribution.
Blending academic rigor with personal memoir, Sarah Benesch embarks on a groundbreaking exploration of pronatalism. She shrewdly dissects the sociopolitical forces that collectively champion motherhood as a moral imperative and polarize women's identities into ‘mother’ or ‘nother’ through various forms of cultural policing. Pronatalism, reminiscent of Foucault’s Discipline and Punish, offers an archaeological examination of how women's bodies continue to be battlegrounds for discursive and sociopolitical struggles. As ultra-conservative voices gain traction globally, the timing of this book is impeccable.
Pronatalism is, above all, a quintessential expression of feminist unity. While it staunchly and unapologetically defends nothers, it offers a complex and nuanced understanding of the realities of women’s lives. The final chapter’s exhortation for reproductive solidarity urges support for women who choose to be either mothers or nothers, especially in the current environment of relentless reproductive injustice. As an academic treatise, the book would be informative for linguists and scholars in cultural studies, and it would be equally instructive for a non-academic audience in shedding light on one of the most socio-politically relevant themes of our times. Benesch’s book enlightens, informs, and educates us with this valuable intellectual contribution and vital call to action.
Sarah Benesch is Professor Emerita of English, College of Staten Island, the City University of New York, USA. Over the course of her career, she has written about critical English for academic purposes and the relationship between emotions and power in English language teaching.
Acknowledgements
Series Editors' Preface
Chapter 1. Introduction
Chapter 2. Eugenics: Relationships between Pro- and Anti-Natalist Discourses
Chapter 3. Pronatalist Discourses and Counterdiscourses in Popular Culture: Biological Clock
Chapter 4. Pronatalist Discourses and Counterdiscourses in Popular Culture: Having it All
Chapter 5. Discourses of Nothering Online: Seeking Community or Celebrating a Lifestyle?
Chapter 6. Discourses of Notherhood: Writers Claim Their Time, Space, Energy, Money, and Reproductive Rights
Chapter 7. Academic Women and Notherhood
Chapter 8. My Notherhood: Discourses and Counterdiscourses
Chapter 9. Reproductive Solidarity
References
Index