Imaging Bodies, Imagining Relations: Narratives of Queer Women and “Assisted Conception”

Abstract

This article is based on ethnographic research conducted between 1998 and 2000 in British Columbia, Canada. In this article Luce brings together the narratives of queer women she interviewed about their experiences of trying to become parents with her own stories about doing the research. Both sets of stories explore the ways in which relationships between people are reproduced and represented through images of sexuality, reproduction, queerness, parents, and families. Shifting between telling about the tensions she experienced while doing ethnographic fieldwork and retelling women's stories about how their relationships to partners, fetuses, babies, and donors were perceived, the article draws attention to both political and methodological questions.

Breaking the ice: Young feminist scholars of reproductive politics reflect on egg freezing

“…The path to accessing reproductive technologies seems to have been developed for white, heterosexual, cisgender (nontrans), married (presumably monogamous) couples with substantial financial resources who are experiencing fertility problems (green et al 2012;Ross et al 2014). Sexual minority women are just missing a piece, so to speak; [End Page 241] not all of us are experiencing infertility as it is traditionally, biomedically defined (we are "socially infertile"; see Luce 2004). Likewise, many sexual and gender minority people encounter barriers to accessing reproductive technologies because of a lack of funds, discrimination, and providers who do not understand our unique family creation needs, to name just a few (Ross et al 2006(Ross et al , 2014.…”

Donor insemination and parenting: Concerns and strategies of lesbian couples. A review of international studies

“…Lesbian couples have the possibility to choose which woman will become pregnant and, if both wish to be biological mothers, who should be first. Intra‐partner oocyte donation is another option discussed in some countries (8, 15). Open identity is required by law in some countries, including Sweden, and is attracting increasing interest in others (24, 25).…”

Reproductive mobilities

“…As it is entwined with the materialities and corporealities of reproduction, attention to sexuality is a necessary element of an embodied and heterogenous approach towards reproductive mobilities. Sexualities inform reproductive mobilities through sexual practices of procreation, norms of sexuality that shape and regulate reproduction, or the 'present absence' of sex from assisted reproduction (Luce 2004). Natalie Oswin's observation that mobilities studies has not highlighted sexualities (2014, 85) urges us to rethink mobilities through reproduction.…”