Rene Almeling
Biographic Data
| ID | 252196 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Rene Almeling |
| GIVEN NAMES | Rene |
| FAMILY NAME | Almeling |
| SIGNATURE | ALMELING R |
| AFFILIATIONS | Yale University |
| ORCID | 0000-0001-8998-4031 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 19 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 382 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 19 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2006 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 7 |
Ask a Feminist
In this episode of Ask a Feminist, recorded in February 2022, Natali Valdez, Sarah Richardson, and Rene Almeling discuss questions of reproduction in the age of epigenetics. As a dialogue between scholars working in and across the fields of anthropology, history, sociology, gender studies, and science and technology studies, the conversation examines a variety of interdisciplinary dimensions of reproduction and epigenetics. Together, the authors …
What Biological Stories are Americans Telling About the Egg and the Sperm? A Study Inspired by Emily Martin 30 Years Later
Emily Martin's landmark article- 'The Egg and the Sperm' -demonstrated that cultural beliefs about masculinity and femininity led scientists to construct a 'fairy tale' romance between active sperm and passive eggs, a biological metaphor that influenced the process of research in scientific labs and descriptions of fertilization in textbooks. In the decades since, there have been significant shifts in cultural beliefs about sex, gender, and sexua…
Men, masculinities, and reproduction - conceptual reflections and empirical explorations
What defines the relationship between men, masculinities, and reproduction? While certainly not an easy question to answer, many people are nonetheless likely to have an intuitive reaction to it: m
Contesting New Markets for Bodily Knowledge
Using the case of direct-to-consumer genetic testing, this chapter examines how experts contested the emergence of this new market for bodily knowledge in the United States at the beginning of the twenty-first century. Drawing on theoretical innovations in economic sociology and medical sociology, the author analyzes how scientists, clinicians, and genetic counselors made the argument that genetic information should be provided within the context…
Does genetic risk for common adult diseases influence reproductive plans? Evidence from a national survey experiment in the United States
Money Talks
Paid to Donate Egg Donors, Sperm Donors, and Gendered Experiences of Bodily Commodification
Same medicine, different reasons
Does educational attainment shape reactions to genetic risk for Alzheimer's disease? Results from a national survey experiment
Reproduction
Every human being in every society results from reproduction, and most American men and women will have a child at some point in their lives. Even those who do not want to have children must contend with strong cultural presumptions around parenthood and, if they are sexually active, take steps to ensure they do not reproduce. In this review I discuss recent research on pregnancy, birth, abortion, contraception, infertility, and assisted reproduc…
Reacting to Genetic Risk
Medical sociologists contend that we are living in an era of surveillance medicine, in which the emphasis on risk blurs the lines between health and disease. Yet, data to examine these claims are generally drawn from patients, raising questions about whether this modern experience of medical risk extends beyond the clinic to healthy people in the larger population. We use the specific case of genetic risk to construct a survey experiment designed…
More and Less than Equal
In both social science and medicine, research on reproduction generally focuses on women. In this article, we examine how men's reproductive contributions are understood. We develop an analytic framework that brings together Cynthia Daniels' conceptualization of reproductive masculinity (2006) with a staged view of reproduction, where the stages include the period before conception, conception, gestation, and birth. Drawing on data from two medic…
Sex Cells
Unimaginable until the twentieth century, the clinical practice of transferring eggs and sperm from body to body is now the basis of a bustling market. In Sex Cells , Rene Almeling provides an inside look at how egg agencies and sperm banks do business. Although both men and women are usually drawn to donation for financial reasons, Almeling finds that clinics encourage sperm donors to think of the payments as remuneration for an easy "job." Wome…
Gender and Health
Objectification, standardization, and commodification in health care
Cold Intimacies
Fat in the Fire? Science, the News Media, and the “Obesity Epidemic” 2
In recent years, the “obesity epidemic” has emerged as a putative public health crisis. This article examines the interconnected role of medical science and news reporting in shaping the way obesity is framed as a social problem. Drawing on a sample of scientific publications on weight and health, and press releases and news reporting on these publications, we compare and contrast social problem frames in medical science and news reporting. We fi…
Selling Genes, Selling Gender
Eggs and sperm are parallel bodily goods in that each contributes half of the reproductive material needed to create life. Yet these cells are produced by differently sexed bodies, allowing for a comparative analysis of how the social process of bodily commodification varies based on sex and gender. Drawing on interview and observational data from two egg agencies and two sperm banks in the United States, this article compares how staff recruit, …
Why do you want to be a donor?’
In the United States, women and men are paid thousands of dollars to ‘donate’ eggs and sperm through commercial agencies. Previous research on egg and sperm donation generally focuses on either the individual donor's motivations or the structural context of commercial agencies, and is often limited to studying either women or men, precluding a direct, gendered comparison of the production of altruistic rhetoric in assisted reproduction. Drawing o…
Selling Genes, Selling Gender
Eggs and sperm are parallel bodily goods in that each contributes half of the reproductive material needed to create life. Yet these cells are produced by differently sexed bodies, allowing for a comparative analysis of how the social process of bodily commodification varies based on sex and gender. Drawing on interview and observational data from two egg agencies and two sperm banks in the United States, this article compares how staff recruit, …
Fat in the Fire? Science, the News Media, and the “Obesity Epidemic” 2
In recent years, the “obesity epidemic” has emerged as a putative public health crisis. This article examines the interconnected role of medical science and news reporting in shaping the way obesity is framed as a social problem. Drawing on a sample of scientific publications on weight and health, and press releases and news reporting on these publications, we compare and contrast social problem frames in medical science and news reporting. We fi…
Objectification, standardization, and commodification in health care
Reproduction
Every human being in every society results from reproduction, and most American men and women will have a child at some point in their lives. Even those who do not want to have children must contend with strong cultural presumptions around parenthood and, if they are sexually active, take steps to ensure they do not reproduce. In this review I discuss recent research on pregnancy, birth, abortion, contraception, infertility, and assisted reproduc…
More and Less than Equal
In both social science and medicine, research on reproduction generally focuses on women. In this article, we examine how men's reproductive contributions are understood. We develop an analytic framework that brings together Cynthia Daniels' conceptualization of reproductive masculinity (2006) with a staged view of reproduction, where the stages include the period before conception, conception, gestation, and birth. Drawing on data from two medic…
What Biological Stories are Americans Telling About the Egg and the Sperm? A Study Inspired by Emily Martin 30 Years Later
Emily Martin's landmark article- 'The Egg and the Sperm' -demonstrated that cultural beliefs about masculinity and femininity led scientists to construct a 'fairy tale' romance between active sperm and passive eggs, a biological metaphor that influenced the process of research in scientific labs and descriptions of fertilization in textbooks. In the decades since, there have been significant shifts in cultural beliefs about sex, gender, and sexua…
Men, masculinities, and reproduction - conceptual reflections and empirical explorations
What defines the relationship between men, masculinities, and reproduction? While certainly not an easy question to answer, many people are nonetheless likely to have an intuitive reaction to it: m
Same medicine, different reasons
Reacting to Genetic Risk
Medical sociologists contend that we are living in an era of surveillance medicine, in which the emphasis on risk blurs the lines between health and disease. Yet, data to examine these claims are generally drawn from patients, raising questions about whether this modern experience of medical risk extends beyond the clinic to healthy people in the larger population. We use the specific case of genetic risk to construct a survey experiment designed…
Cold Intimacies
Why do you want to be a donor?’
In the United States, women and men are paid thousands of dollars to ‘donate’ eggs and sperm through commercial agencies. Previous research on egg and sperm donation generally focuses on either the individual donor's motivations or the structural context of commercial agencies, and is often limited to studying either women or men, precluding a direct, gendered comparison of the production of altruistic rhetoric in assisted reproduction. Drawing o…
Fat in the Fire? Science, the News Media, and the “Obesity Epidemic” 2
In recent years, the “obesity epidemic” has emerged as a putative public health crisis. This article examines the interconnected role of medical science and news reporting in shaping the way obesity is framed as a social problem. Drawing on a sample of scientific publications on weight and health, and press releases and news reporting on these publications, we compare and contrast social problem frames in medical science and news reporting. We fi…
Selling Genes, Selling Gender
Eggs and sperm are parallel bodily goods in that each contributes half of the reproductive material needed to create life. Yet these cells are produced by differently sexed bodies, allowing for a comparative analysis of how the social process of bodily commodification varies based on sex and gender. Drawing on interview and observational data from two egg agencies and two sperm banks in the United States, this article compares how staff recruit, …
Objectification, standardization, and commodification in health care
Cold Intimacies
Gender and Health
Sex Cells
Unimaginable until the twentieth century, the clinical practice of transferring eggs and sperm from body to body is now the basis of a bustling market. In Sex Cells , Rene Almeling provides an inside look at how egg agencies and sperm banks do business. Although both men and women are usually drawn to donation for financial reasons, Almeling finds that clinics encourage sperm donors to think of the payments as remuneration for an easy "job." Wome…
More and Less than Equal
In both social science and medicine, research on reproduction generally focuses on women. In this article, we examine how men's reproductive contributions are understood. We develop an analytic framework that brings together Cynthia Daniels' conceptualization of reproductive masculinity (2006) with a staged view of reproduction, where the stages include the period before conception, conception, gestation, and birth. Drawing on data from two medic…
Reacting to Genetic Risk
Medical sociologists contend that we are living in an era of surveillance medicine, in which the emphasis on risk blurs the lines between health and disease. Yet, data to examine these claims are generally drawn from patients, raising questions about whether this modern experience of medical risk extends beyond the clinic to healthy people in the larger population. We use the specific case of genetic risk to construct a survey experiment designed…
Reproduction
Every human being in every society results from reproduction, and most American men and women will have a child at some point in their lives. Even those who do not want to have children must contend with strong cultural presumptions around parenthood and, if they are sexually active, take steps to ensure they do not reproduce. In this review I discuss recent research on pregnancy, birth, abortion, contraception, infertility, and assisted reproduc…
Money Talks
Paid to Donate Egg Donors, Sperm Donors, and Gendered Experiences of Bodily Commodification
Same medicine, different reasons
Does educational attainment shape reactions to genetic risk for Alzheimer's disease? Results from a national survey experiment
Does genetic risk for common adult diseases influence reproductive plans? Evidence from a national survey experiment in the United States
Contesting New Markets for Bodily Knowledge
Using the case of direct-to-consumer genetic testing, this chapter examines how experts contested the emergence of this new market for bodily knowledge in the United States at the beginning of the twenty-first century. Drawing on theoretical innovations in economic sociology and medical sociology, the author analyzes how scientists, clinicians, and genetic counselors made the argument that genetic information should be provided within the context…
Men, masculinities, and reproduction - conceptual reflections and empirical explorations
What defines the relationship between men, masculinities, and reproduction? While certainly not an easy question to answer, many people are nonetheless likely to have an intuitive reaction to it: m
What Biological Stories are Americans Telling About the Egg and the Sperm? A Study Inspired by Emily Martin 30 Years Later
Emily Martin's landmark article- 'The Egg and the Sperm' -demonstrated that cultural beliefs about masculinity and femininity led scientists to construct a 'fairy tale' romance between active sperm and passive eggs, a biological metaphor that influenced the process of research in scientific labs and descriptions of fertilization in textbooks. In the decades since, there have been significant shifts in cultural beliefs about sex, gender, and sexua…
Ask a Feminist
In this episode of Ask a Feminist, recorded in February 2022, Natali Valdez, Sarah Richardson, and Rene Almeling discuss questions of reproduction in the age of epigenetics. As a dialogue between scholars working in and across the fields of anthropology, history, sociology, gender studies, and science and technology studies, the conversation examines a variety of interdisciplinary dimensions of reproduction and epigenetics. Together, the authors …
Sociology (14 works) · Psychology (13 works) · Medicine (9 works) · Reproductive Health and Technologies (9 works) · Political science (7 works) · Biology (6 works) · Demography (6 works) · Law (6 works) · Social Psychology (6 works) · Demography (5 works)