Introduction: Conceiving of Postmodern Reproduction

Abstract

When Ann Oakley wrote about embodied experiences of gender and reproduction in the mid-1970s in Britain, men were not routinely present for the birth of their children, foetuses existed in only two dimensions on the ultrasound screen, women could not easily ‘elect’ to have a caesarean section, and buying sperm online was inconceivable. Today, this is all possible. In fact, as this book will make apparent, quite a lot has changed in the last 40 years or so in the West1 — reproduction has evolved alongside neoliberalisation, commodification, advances in reproductive technologies, shifting notions of ‘gender ‘and ‘sex’, and the rise of postfeminism.