Stigma resistance in online child free communities : the limitations of choice rhetoric

Morison, Tracy; Macleod, Catriona I; Lynch, Ingrid; Mijas, Magda; Shivakumar, Seemanthini T

Title: Stigma resistance in online child free communities : the limitations of choice rhetoric
Creator: Morison, Tracy
Creator: Macleod, Catriona I
Creator: Lynch, Ingrid
Creator: Mijas, Magda
Creator: Shivakumar, Seemanthini T
Date Issued: 2015
Date: 2015
Type: Article
Identifier: vital:6311
Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1019799
Identifier: http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0361684315603657
Description: People who are voluntarily childless, or ‘‘childfree,’’ face considerable stigma. Researchers have begun to explore how these individuals respond to stigma, usually focusing on interpersonal stigma management strategies. We explored participants’ responses to stigma in a way that is cognisant of broader social norms and gender power relations. Using a feminist discursive psychology framework, we analysed women’s and men’s computer-assisted communication about their childfree status. Our analysis draws attention to ‘‘identity work’’ in the context of stigma. We show how the strategic use of ‘‘choice’’ rhetoric allowed participants to avoid stigmatised identities and was used in two contradictory ways. On the one hand, participants drew on a ‘‘childfree-by-choice script,’’ which enabled them to hold a positive identity of themselves as autonomous, rational, and responsible decision makers. On the other hand, they mobilised a ‘‘disavowal of choice script’’ that allowed a person who is unable to choose childlessness (for various reasons) to hold a blameless identity regarding deviation from the norm of parenthood. We demonstrate how choice rhetoric allowed participants to resist stigma and challenge pronatalism to some extent; we discuss the political potential of these scripts for reproductive freedom.
Format: 15 pages
Format: pdf
Publisher: Sage Publications
Language: English

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RU DST/NRF SARChI for Critical Studies in Sexualities and Reproductions Research (CSSR) Programme

Morison, Tracy (Dr)

SDG 05. Gender Equality

RU Department of Psychology

Macleod, Catriona Ida (Distinguished Professor)

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