Parents, Children and the Porous Boundaries of the Sexual Family in Law and Popular Culture

Datos Bibliográficos

ID13005461
AutoresDAVID GURNHAM (0000-0002-6807-7587, University of Manchester, autor de correspondencia)
Año2011
Volumen1
Número4
Páginas343-353
Fecha de publicación2011-01-01
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessSí
TipoARTICLE
RevistaGlobal Studies of Childhood (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 2043-6106 • E-ISSN: 2043-6106
EditorialSAGE Publishing (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.2304/gsch.2011.1.4.343
OpenAlexW2127001450
IdiomaEN
Referencias citadas14

This article focuses on a perceived ideological overlap between popular cultural and judicial treatments of sex and conjugality that contributes to a discursive construction of parenthood and parenting. The author perceives that in both legal and popular cultural texts, there is a sense in which notions of ‘natural’ childhood are discursively constituted as being put at risk by those who reproduce outside of dominant sexual norms, and that signs of normative sexuality (typically in the form of heterosexual coupling) may be treated as a sign of safety. These ideas are rooted in ancient associations between fertility, sexuality and femininity that can also be traced in the historical development of the English language. With the help of commentators such as Martha Fineman, the article situates parents and children within a discourse of family which prioritises conjugality, with consequences for the ways in which the internal and external boundaries of families are delineated

Epistemology · Femininity · Human sexuality · Ideology · Normative · Political science · Politics · Sign (mathematics · Sociology · Feminism, Gender, and Sexuality Studies · Gender Studies · Law · Marriage and Sexual Relationships · Philosophy · Reproductive Health and Technologies