Control of Cultural and Bodily Reproduction: The Denial of Autonomy in the United States, Peru and Globally

Authors

Anna M. Schloerb, Macalester CollegeFollow

Abstract

Statement of Purpose:

This project seeks to look at the ways the state and hegemonic devices of power control cultural and bodily reproduction. It asks the question of how this control inhibits people's reproductive autonomy, cultural identity, language, and generational knowledge transmission. I offer specific examples of how this control has functioned in the US, with immigrants, Indigenous, Black people and other marginalized groups. My grandmother is from Lima, Peru and because of that connection, and the inspiration of this piece, I wanted to use the 1990s-2000s Sterilization in Peru as a case study of hegemonic control happening more globally. This incorporates the way governments co-opt movement autonomy, in this case co-opting progressive feminist rhetoric. I use the examples above to consider how the fight for reproductive autonomy in US should be framed, avoiding binary view of access to abortion that positions abortion as a choice, but looking to a longstanding intersectional Reproductive Justice Movement created by and centering Black feminists and other feminists of color. I will end using an abolition feminist framework and “Uses of the Erotic” as one possible image of a liberatory future where we can decolonize our bodies and resist the forms of control I frame at the beginning of my analysis.

Author Biography

Anna M. Schloerb is an American Studies and Theater & Dance double major with a Music minor at Macalester College. She is originally from Chicago, Illinois. She would like to dedicate this paper to her grandmother and her family, the maternal lineage which has come before. She would like to thank all those who gave her time and grace, helping her work-through, edit, and create this super-huge-very-meaningful project. For you all I am truly eternally grateful. <3

Recommended Citation

Schloerb, Anna M. (2023) "Control of Cultural and Bodily Reproduction: The Denial of Autonomy in the United States, Peru and Globally," Tapestries: Interwoven voices of local and global identities: Vol. 12: Iss. 1, Article 13.
Available at: https://digitalcommons.macalester.edu/tapestries/vol12/iss1/13

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