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The Means of Reproduction

March 25th, 2009
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Over here, an interview with Michelle Goldberg, the author of a new book, The Means of Reproduction - which promises to be a very interesting read. One of the key issues it discusses seems to be how the rise of the American religious right has impacted feminist movements worldwide (How? Not in a good way for sure). It is of course written from a Western perspective, but there seems to be some good stuff on how grassroots workers in different countries (including India) are using ingenious ways to fight for social justice. I hope it gets out in India, so that we can read it too. 

She also addresses sex-selective abortion in India and whether it could be misappropriated by an anti-abortion lobby, but on the whole seems to take a more pragmatic approach than some Western feminists who’ve seen it through a Western lens of, but, shouldn’t women be allowed to have control over their own bodies? 

In the interview, she uses, what is I think a fantastic quote from economist Gita Sen, ”A woman’s choice to have a sex-selective abortion may reflect the fact that she has very few rights.” Some choice, huh. 

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apu The Literary life, Women & Feminism

  1. Deborah
    March 25th, 2009 at 22:19 | #1
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    I wrote about female foeticide myself last year - NB I’m a western woman. This is the position I reached:

    So the problem with female foeticide is not the abortions themselves, but the fact that they are brought about because girls and women are not valued, are thought to be lesser beings. The moral failing in the case of female foeticide is to do with the lesser valuation placed on women and girls.

    And I quoted a comment which another Western feminist had made, about what might be done about it:

    If you’re functioning within a society in which women are consistently undervalued, then individual actions like sex-selection abortions do, as B says, end up having a societal cost - and a bias. If you change the ‘value’ of women, you change the abortion patterns. Easier said than done, of course.

  2. apu
    March 26th, 2009 at 09:02 | #2
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    Oh yes, Deb, I do remember that post; I don’t mean of course that no one from the West can understand issues here (or vice-versa), but yes, sometimes, the way everything is seen with Western eyes is frustrating…

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