This article is based on various interconnected ethnographic research studies. The data come from fieldwork carried out in two fertility clinics of Southern California (2014-2016; 2017-ongoing), in which the experiences of thirty-five US gestational surrogates were collected. The article is divided into two parts: in the first section, I will present a brief history of surrogacy in the United States. I will read surrogacy as a cultural anomaly (Douglas, 2002) in order to illustrate the common representations of women who decide to part with the baby they have carried in their wombs; in the second, ethnographic section, which describes how US surrogates represent the babies they carry for others, I will show how these women redefine the meanings of pregnancy, maternity and parenthood.
«They make it, i bake it». Pregnancy, maternity and parenthood in the context of gestational surrogacy in the United States
Guerzoni C. S.
2018
Abstract
This article is based on various interconnected ethnographic research studies. The data come from fieldwork carried out in two fertility clinics of Southern California (2014-2016; 2017-ongoing), in which the experiences of thirty-five US gestational surrogates were collected. The article is divided into two parts: in the first section, I will present a brief history of surrogacy in the United States. I will read surrogacy as a cultural anomaly (Douglas, 2002) in order to illustrate the common representations of women who decide to part with the baby they have carried in their wombs; in the second, ethnographic section, which describes how US surrogates represent the babies they carry for others, I will show how these women redefine the meanings of pregnancy, maternity and parenthood.I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
