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An invitation into doing reproductive justice queerly.
Queer theory and reproductive justice need each other—now more than ever. As liberals and leftists increasingly frame reproductive justice in terms of LGBTQ+ rights, often adopting the language of “queerness,” it has become difficult to see that their political demands and strategies are often quite conservative. In Reproductive Justice, Queerly, Carly Thomsen examines typical reproductive justice issues—including abortion, surrogacy, crisis pregnancy centers, paid parental leave, and parenting—in queer ways. She shows what can happen when we bring queer theory and reproductive justice together: a queerer, more powerful articulation of what we are fighting for.
Carly Thomsen is Associate Professor in the Department of English and Creative Writing and the Center for the Study of Women, Gender, and Sexuality at Rice University. She is author of Visibility Interrupted: Rural Queer Life and the Politics of Unbecoming and coeditor of Feminist Studies: An Introductory Reader. She is also the proud creator of the world’s first reproductive justice mini golf course.
"Lots of books get written but rarely are they as brave as Carly Thomsen’s Reproductive Justice, Queerly. Refusing to give in to the dystopic future on offer by right-wing assaults on reproductive justice, the book is also clear eyed in delineating the possibilities and pitfalls of contemporary feminist, queer, and trans grammars of gender. Readers will be startled, gratified, and at times enraged by its argument but no one will doubt the value of Thomsen’s commitment to deepening left critical understandings of the challenges of the present."—Robyn Wiegman, author of Object Lessons
"I'm eager to teach this timely book, which demonstrates that new thinking is possible about some of the more pressing current controversies in the reproductive justice movement. This challenge to the rigidity of dogmatic thinking about inclusiveness is urgently needed and very welcome."—Loretta Ross, author of Calling In: How to Start Making Change with Those You'd Rather Cancel
"With the lives of women and trans/queer people under attack by reactionary political forces in the United States and elsewhere, Carly Thomsen’s impassioned call for greater attention to queer theory within the reproductive justice movement could not be more urgent or timely. Her intellectual and analytical contributions offer important thought tools for resisting death-dealing policies and practices in the material world."—Susan Stryker, author of Transgender History: A Resource for Today’s Struggle—and Tomorrow’s
“Reproductive Justice, Queerly is a book I will gift to my young cousin (a burgeoning feminist of color), older white women in my activist circles in the Midwest, and feminist artists of all ages. As an artist, I am especially excited about what this book teaches us about the queer possibilities of art in our fights for reproductive justice. At once rigorous in its thinking and inviting in its tone, this book has a challenge to offer all of us. What a rarity!”—Carmen Winant, author of The Last Safe Abortion
"Reproductive Justice, Queerly is a brave, creative, and fierce examination of the potentials of representing, creating, and intervening in the social semantics and politics of abortions, childbirth, paid maternity leaves, surrogacy, parentage, and pregnancies. Thomsen fabulously messes up our ‘straightforward’ understandings of reproductive justice by framing these matters 'queerly.' To do so, she delves into uncommon cultural sites such as art exhibitions and mini golf. In a volatile ‘post-Roe’ political present that aims to eradicate resistance and action, Thomsen reveals novel pathways for powerful engagements towards a future that promises much more than what we have now."—Martin Manalansan, author of Global Divas: Filipino Gay Men in the Diaspora
“Reproductive Justice, Queerly grabbed me from the first page with its gracefully flowing stories and politically astute analyses. It dives deep into the devastatingly consequential sites of injustice and responds with an insistence on—even a spirited romp with—queer practice. Here is art, pedagogies, aesthetics, resistance, collective process, and of course bodies, all the ways we imagine, fight about, and live within bodies, and all that tells us about doing reproductive justice. Creatively engaged with theory and grounded in practical outcomes, the book comes alive with surprising conversations with ordinary and not-so-ordinary people who help us understand what is at stake here: reproductive justice, yes, and also conversation itself, which may be the queerest and most necessary thing of all.”—Finn Enke, author of Transfeminist Perspectives in and Beyond Transgender and Gender Studies