Francophobia, Anti-Americanism

Narratives of the Trans-Atlantic Other in French and U.S. News on Abortion-Related Issues

Dados Bibliográficos

ID7459271
AutoresGinna Husting, Leslie King (0000-0002-2940-6077)
Ano2005
Volume5
Fascículo4
Páginas447-471
Data de publicação2005-11-01
Peer ReviewedSim
Open AccessSim
TipoARTICLE
PeriódicoCulture Studies ↔ Critical Methodologies (JOURNAL)
Identificadores do periódicoISSN: 1532-7086 • E-ISSN: 1552-356X
EditoraSAGE Publishing (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1177/1532708605279698
OpenAlexW2070254318
IdiomaEN
Citações recebidas2
Referências citadas31

This article examines the interplay of abortion and nationalism in French and U.S. print news discussions of abortion-related issues. U.S. news stories on RU-486 and French news stories on prolife direct action protesters are rife with qualifiers designating each issue as a foreign one. In American media, RU-486 is the French pill; in French media, protesters are American inspired/mobilized. Together, these cases constitute a site for the recurrent construction of the relation between nationhood, national identity, and moral goodness. In each case, media narratives of abortion-related issues reveal that more is at stake than reproductive rights issues. The authors argue that discourses on abortion are grounded in politics of nationalism that shore up the boundaries of the homeland and anchor the distinction between public and private spheres through a discourse of opposition to foreign cultural invaders. The articulation of moral conflict over abortion and myths of foreign origins situate the national collectivity as a good, innocent victim of corrupt outside influence

Abortion · Literature · Media studies · Moral panic · Narrative · National identity · Nationalism · Opposition (politics · Political science · Politics · Sociology · American Constitutional Law and Politics · Canadian Identity and History · Historical Studies on Reproduction, Gender, Health, and Societal Changes · Gender Studies · Law