WSIF-01910; No of Pages 2

Women's Studies International Forum xxx (2015) xxxxxx

Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

Women's Studies International Forum

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/wsif

Book Review
Reframing reproduction: Conceiving gendered experiences,
Meredith Nash (Ed.), Palgrave Macmillan (2014), 305 pp.,
ISBN: 978-0-230-27254-5
How have conception and reproduction evolved within
an increasingly diverse and technology adept society? This
is the key question Meredith Nash poses in her collection
Reframing Reproduction: Conceiving Gendered Experiences with
an eclectic range of chapters grouped into three parts:
Contested Choices and Challenges; Reproductive Bodies
and Identities; and The (Global) Reproductive Market, respectively. Presenting the collection thus permits discussions to
move from questioning the assumption that a more neoliberal
culture results in empowerment through choice (Part 1), to the
active constitution or reconstitution of embodied identities
(Part 2) through to diverse examples of commodification of
reproduction in a global marketplace (Part 3).
In looking to address a gap in reproductive studies, the
collection draws on an exciting range of scholarship from a
range of disciplines including law, psychology, sociology,
medicine, gender studies and nursing. The substantive chapters
showcase an impressive array of carefully thought-out and
complementary explorations that present a comprehensive
approach to the subject. The perceived known (p48) is
deconstructed in an effective manner throughout the chapters;
the language that surrounds discussion of fertility and reproduction is thrown open and becomes subject to critique and, in
some cases, is removed from predominantly pathologised or
medicalised definitions.
To reference just a few of the compelling chapters, Johnson,
McQuillan, Greil and Shreffler's chapter on developing a more
inclusive framework for understanding fertility barriers (p23)
situates a study of US women alongside recent feminist
research on infertility to move forward the sociological
discussion of infertility itself (p26). Gleeson's chapter on the
entrepreneurial female in reference to the Cairns Case of
2010 reappropriates perceptions of self-procured miscarriage
and resituates women's bodies away from the medicalisation
of reproduction (p73), locating it within second-wave feminist
discourses. Nash presents a photovoice (p115) study of
postpartum body image; an intriguing dimension to women
reframing themselves after childbirth sometimes in opposition to sensationalised media coverage of postnatal celebrities.
The collection of photos contained within this chapter presents
a fascinating range of disembodiedness where photos from

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.wsif.2015.12.002
0277-5395/ 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

participants ranged from full body and face photographs and

postnatal stomachs, to others taking photographs of their
clothes, or, in one case, a wardrobe showing the four outfits one
participant felt comfortable to wear. This impactful visual tour
is augmented by qualitative data gained during the study some
of which discussed bodies becoming not me (p133), and thus
other.
Shirani and Miller's respective chapters address the involved (p168) fatherhood experience while Moore and Grady,
and Team and Ryan present alternative dimensions through
exploring less involved fatherhood (ordering sperm online and
the operation of sperm banks in the social media age), and
disembodied motherhood through the commodification of
breast milk, respectively. The evolution of this collection weaves
a compelling narrative of how conception and reproduction
have transmuted and developed; how neoliberalism does not
essentially create a free society with a plethora of choices
(p82); and the tantalising embodiment, fragmentation and
commodification of reproductive processes and associations.
One particular omission of this collection is consideration of
how choices surrounding reproduction, technology and open
discussion surrounding autonomous parental bodies can
translate to countries outside of the privileged West. While
Team and Ryan make brief reference to the donation of breast
milk to Africa (p222), their discussion of the commodification
of breast milk could be further enhanced through sustained
consideration of the impacts on and engagements with
developing countries. Furthermore, the multiple references to
what Nash terms the global industry or global marketplace
(p11, p252) of reproduction is, unfortunately, not global in
its geographic breadth here. Nash closes the collection with a
brief reference to the Western foci of the work, acknowledging
that there is research to be done outside of the Western,
technologised terrain. This collection could have usefully
benefitted through such a comparison with developing
countries.
Nash asserts early on that this work seeks to reframe the
study of reproduction within sociology (p1); this collection does
far more than that, in its successful balancing of interdisciplinary
methodologies and analysis resulting in a diverse, fascinating
and wide-ranging text. As one of the first comprehensive studies
of reproduction and gendered experiences, Nash and her
colleagues have set a solid example for further work to be
conducted in this area, and set up a potentially exciting study to
explore differences across continents and class systems. This

Book Review

collection is an ambitious undertaking with an impressive scope

of explorations that have significance for a range of disciplines. It
is a generous and theoretically solid offering to the scholarly
community and one which will certainly inform future work on
conception and reproductive bodily autonomy in the twentyfirst century. While there is further work to do in this area, Nash
succeeds in putting together an accessible, fascinating and
wholly useful collection which will be of significant benefit for

junior and established scholars in the field of reproductive and

gender studies and beyond.
Anna Fraser Mackenzie
University of Chester, UK
Available online xxxx