Advanced Search

Journal Navigation

Journal Home

Subscriptions

Archive

Contact Us

Table of Contents

CiteULike is a free service for managing and discovering scholarly references - click here to get started.

Sign In to gain access to subscriptions and/or personal tools.
European Journal of Women's Studies
This Article
Right arrow Full Text (PDF)
Right arrow References
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Add to Saved Citations
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrowRequest Permissions
Right arrow Request Reprints
Right arrow Add to My Marked Citations
Citing Articles
Right arrow Citing Articles via HighWire
Right arrow Citing Articles via Google Scholar
Right arrow Citing Articles via Scopus
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Bryld, M.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
Social Bookmarking
Add to CiteULike   Add to Complore   Add to Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us   Add to Digg   Add to Reddit   Add to Technorati   Add to Twitter  
What's this?

The Infertility Clinic and the Birth of the Lesbian

The Political Debate on Assisted Reproduction in Denmark

Mette Bryld

UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN DENMARK

As a feminist updating of Foucauldian analysis, the article makes the point that ‘the lesbian’ was not significantly exposed or seriously interpellated by Danish official discourse until the political debate on new reproductive technologies and reprogenetics accelerated at the end of the 20th century. In the 1990s, the debate thus constructed ‘the lesbian’ not only as an ‘unnatural mother’, but also as heiress to the monstrous figure of the ‘mad scientist’ whose tampering with the embryo had stirred the political mind in the previous decade. Deeply worried by developments in biotechnology, many politicians felt they should protect the embryo from this sinister scientist, and, subsequently, the innocent child from the monstrous lesbian. Hence, a majority of MPs voted for excluding lesbians and single women from access to assisted reproduction in medical clinics.

Key Words: child • cultural imaginary • embryo • Foucault • mad scientist • monsters • new reproductive technologies • reprogenetics

European Journal of Women's Studies, Vol. 8, No. 3, 299-312 (2001)
DOI: 10.1177/135050680100800303
Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Complore Complore   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us   Add to Digg Digg   Add to Reddit Reddit   Add to Technorati Technorati   Add to Twitter Twitter    What's this?


This article has been cited by other articles:


Home page
 Feminist TheoryHome page
P. Nordqvist
Feminist heterosexual imaginaries of reproduction: Lesbian conception in feminist studies of reproductive technologies
Feminist Theory, December 1, 2008; 9(3): 273 - 292.
[Abstract] [PDF]

Home page
 Critical Social PolicyHome page
C. L. Bacchi and C. Beasley
Citizen bodies: is embodied citizenship a contradiction in terms?
Critical Social Policy, May 1, 2002; 22(2): 324 - 352.
[Abstract] [PDF]