‘I Think I Stick Out a Bit’: The Classification of Reproductive Decision-Making

Abstract

This article provides an empirical insight into the operation of neoliberal, postfeminist, and middle-class norms which intersect to classify reproduction as imperative for some women, while for ‘others’ it is classified as inappropriate and in need of regulation. This valuation constructs an idealized reproductive citizen and a hierarchy of decisions about having children, while the inequalities and different material conditions that structure reproductive decisions and trajectories are ignored. This article will therefore demonstrate how the middle-class, neoliberal, and postfeminist subject of value operates in relation to reproduction in a social, political, and gendered context that emphasizes choice, individual responsibility, and self-investment and future planning. However, evidence of resistance to classification will also be shown, which provides an insight into how this valued reproductive citizen is negotiated.