... That Dares Not Speak Its Name: Invisibility in the Lives of Lesbian and Bisexual South Asian ... more ... That Dares Not Speak Its Name: Invisibility in the Lives of Lesbian and Bisexual South Asian American Women 126 PRAJNA PARAMITA CHOUDHURY 10 The Trap of Multiculturalism: Battered South Asian Women and Health Care 139 SUNITA PURI 11 Ahimsa and the ...
Through examining cases of cross-border surrogacy in Israel and the United States, we offer the c... more Through examining cases of cross-border surrogacy in Israel and the United States, we offer the concept of genetic kinning defined as the narratives deployed by individuals that give prominence to genetic relatedness between offspring and parents to highlight immutable similarities between parents, and by extension, grandparents and ancestors. The deployment of genetic kinning narratives does not happen in a vacuum; instead, nation-state bodies emphasize genetic relatedness within the family unit, especially accentuated in cases of cross-border surrogacy where intended parents need to receive travel documents, including passports, and subsequently citizenship, for their children birthed through surrogacy. Genetic kinning is more emphasized for queer couples, where only one (or neither) of the fathers, or mothers as the case may be, is genetically related to the infant. We examine cases in Israel and the United States that we selected due to their wide media coverage and studied thro...
"This article tracks surrogate mothers’ wage labor trajectories in the southern Indian city ... more "This article tracks surrogate mothers’ wage labor trajectories in the southern Indian city of Bangalore. Women working in garment factories sell their eggs and become surrogate mothers, after which they cycle back to garment factories. I show that while women are exploited in the intimate industries, they do not necessarily feel disempowered. Perversely, deepening forms of bodily commodification are experienced as deliverance from social degradation. Many surrogate mothers describe their social degradation because of gender; they have weaker positions in the home, they earn lesser wages than their husbands, and they are sexually harassed on the garment shop floor. Yet, they explain that it is precisely because of their womanly bodies they can earn large sums of money in Bangalore’s reproduction industry. Their ability to bring capital facilitates their capacity to negotiate powerful positions in their extended households, and solidify their social positions."
This chapter explores transnational surrogacy in South Asia. India has become the prime destinati... more This chapter explores transnational surrogacy in South Asia. India has become the prime destination for surrogacy for Western couples. It is a quicker and easier legal process than adoption, and it allows the Western parents to raise a child who is genetically similar to one of them. The babies' birth certificates have the commissioning parents' names, with no sign whatsoever of the surrogate mothers' role in the development and birth. In order to take the baby to their home country, the new parents must prove that the child is legally theirs through paternal gene testing. Some parents celebrate their children's Indian roots by way of nicknames or clothing, while others ignore the role of Indian mothers. Although users of transnational surrogacy services are moral pioneers, there is no place for egg donors or surrogate mothers in the nuclear Western family.
In the decade following legalization of commercial surrogacy in 2002, India became the largest pr... more In the decade following legalization of commercial surrogacy in 2002, India became the largest provider of surrogacy services. Then, in December 2015 commercial surrogacy was banned. In this article I show that commercial surrogacy was no panacea for working-class women, but the ban can potentially be far worse because the Indian state now allows only altruistic surrogacy between citizen couples and their women kinfolk who will provide gestation services for no monetary compensation. By positing altruistic surrogacy as a superior alternative, the Indian state has effectively deregulated surrogacy, potentially allowing deeper exploitation of women. I conclude that if the state wants to halt exploitation of working-class women, which is the expressed reason for banning commercial surrogacy, then policies need to be directed at strengthening labor laws to protect women as productive individuals, rather than wives or mothers.
... That Dares Not Speak Its Name: Invisibility in the Lives of Lesbian and Bisexual South Asian ... more ... That Dares Not Speak Its Name: Invisibility in the Lives of Lesbian and Bisexual South Asian American Women 126 PRAJNA PARAMITA CHOUDHURY 10 The Trap of Multiculturalism: Battered South Asian Women and Health Care 139 SUNITA PURI 11 Ahimsa and the ...
Through examining cases of cross-border surrogacy in Israel and the United States, we offer the c... more Through examining cases of cross-border surrogacy in Israel and the United States, we offer the concept of genetic kinning defined as the narratives deployed by individuals that give prominence to genetic relatedness between offspring and parents to highlight immutable similarities between parents, and by extension, grandparents and ancestors. The deployment of genetic kinning narratives does not happen in a vacuum; instead, nation-state bodies emphasize genetic relatedness within the family unit, especially accentuated in cases of cross-border surrogacy where intended parents need to receive travel documents, including passports, and subsequently citizenship, for their children birthed through surrogacy. Genetic kinning is more emphasized for queer couples, where only one (or neither) of the fathers, or mothers as the case may be, is genetically related to the infant. We examine cases in Israel and the United States that we selected due to their wide media coverage and studied thro...
"This article tracks surrogate mothers’ wage labor trajectories in the southern Indian city ... more "This article tracks surrogate mothers’ wage labor trajectories in the southern Indian city of Bangalore. Women working in garment factories sell their eggs and become surrogate mothers, after which they cycle back to garment factories. I show that while women are exploited in the intimate industries, they do not necessarily feel disempowered. Perversely, deepening forms of bodily commodification are experienced as deliverance from social degradation. Many surrogate mothers describe their social degradation because of gender; they have weaker positions in the home, they earn lesser wages than their husbands, and they are sexually harassed on the garment shop floor. Yet, they explain that it is precisely because of their womanly bodies they can earn large sums of money in Bangalore’s reproduction industry. Their ability to bring capital facilitates their capacity to negotiate powerful positions in their extended households, and solidify their social positions."
This chapter explores transnational surrogacy in South Asia. India has become the prime destinati... more This chapter explores transnational surrogacy in South Asia. India has become the prime destination for surrogacy for Western couples. It is a quicker and easier legal process than adoption, and it allows the Western parents to raise a child who is genetically similar to one of them. The babies' birth certificates have the commissioning parents' names, with no sign whatsoever of the surrogate mothers' role in the development and birth. In order to take the baby to their home country, the new parents must prove that the child is legally theirs through paternal gene testing. Some parents celebrate their children's Indian roots by way of nicknames or clothing, while others ignore the role of Indian mothers. Although users of transnational surrogacy services are moral pioneers, there is no place for egg donors or surrogate mothers in the nuclear Western family.
In the decade following legalization of commercial surrogacy in 2002, India became the largest pr... more In the decade following legalization of commercial surrogacy in 2002, India became the largest provider of surrogacy services. Then, in December 2015 commercial surrogacy was banned. In this article I show that commercial surrogacy was no panacea for working-class women, but the ban can potentially be far worse because the Indian state now allows only altruistic surrogacy between citizen couples and their women kinfolk who will provide gestation services for no monetary compensation. By positing altruistic surrogacy as a superior alternative, the Indian state has effectively deregulated surrogacy, potentially allowing deeper exploitation of women. I conclude that if the state wants to halt exploitation of working-class women, which is the expressed reason for banning commercial surrogacy, then policies need to be directed at strengthening labor laws to protect women as productive individuals, rather than wives or mothers.
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