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

Dados Bibliográficos

ID13005461
AutoresDAVID GURNHAM (0000-0002-6807-7587, University of Manchester, autor correspondente)
Ano2011
Volume1
Fascículo4
Páginas343-353
Data de publicação2011-01-01
Peer ReviewedSim
Open AccessSim
TipoARTICLE
PeriódicoGlobal Studies of Childhood (JOURNAL)
Identificadores do periódicoISSN: 2043-6106 • E-ISSN: 2043-6106
EditoraSAGE Publishing (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.2304/gsch.2011.1.4.343
OpenAlexW2127001450
IdiomaEN
Referências 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