Romancing the Sperm
Shifting Biopolitics and the Making of Modern Families
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 2242685 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Diane Tober (0000-0003-1416-093X, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2020 |
| Volume | 99 |
| Issue | 1 |
| Pages | e21-e21 |
| Publication date | 2020-08-05 |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Social Forces (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0037-7732 • E-ISSN: 1534-7605 |
| Publisher | Oxford University Press (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1093/sf/soaa036 |
| OpenAlex | W2990998928 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 5 |
Reviewer: Laura Halcomb, University of California Santa Barbara Romancing the Sperm: Shifting Biopolitics and the Making of Modern Families analyzes the multiple participants in and recipients of sperm donation in the San Francisco Bay Area. Diane Tober, a critical medical anthropologist, investigates how women make decisions about families without men, why men decide to donate sperm, and how sperm banks mediate between donors and recipients. Guided by feminist research principles, she interrogates how these women negotiate access to medical clinics, social acceptance, and legal recognition while creating families. This often involves managing relationships with donors, doctors, friends, and family. The center of Tober’s inquiry is the sperm bank, where the different participants in the reproductive market are connected through the exchange of sperm. Although donors and recipients are often separated by time, space, and legal contracts, Tober is ultimately most interested in examining the connections between them. She situates her research at the intersections of critical theoretical approaches to the study of technology, sexuality, governance, and reproduction. Much of the analysis is closely tied to robust anthropological literatures on kinship, medicine, and reproduction.
Biology · Biopower · Corporate governance · Egg donation · Fertility · Gynecology · Human sexuality · Kinship · Management · Negotiation · Political science · Politics · Population · Pregnancy · Reproduction · Reproductive technology · Social science · Sociology · Sperm · Sperm bank · Sperm donation · Anthropology · Demographic Trends and Gender Preferences · Demography · Gender Studies · Law · Medicine · Reproductive Health and Technologies
| Citations per year | 0.63 |
|---|---|
| Citation span | 2018 - 2021 (4) |
| Highly cited | No |