Conceiving Silence
Infertility as Discursive Contradiction in Ireland
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 2278152 |
|---|---|
| Authors | J Allison (0000-0003-0787-4555, Memorial University of Newfoundland, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2011 |
| Volume | 25 |
| Issue | 1 |
| Pages | 1-21 |
| Publication date | 2011-03-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Medical Anthropology Quarterly (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0745-5194 • E-ISSN: 1548-1387 |
| Publisher | Wiley (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1111/j.1548-1387.2010.01123.x |
| PMID | 21495491 |
| OpenAlex | W1867775245 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 14 |
| References cited | 17 |
This article examines the production and reproduction of silence around infertility in Ireland. Based on narratives collected during 18 months of fieldwork, this article locates the contradictory role of silence in both the private experiences of individuals faced with a difficulty conceiving and in institutions constituted as mechanisms of public support. For many people who experience infertility, silence is rooted in the social stigma associated with reproductive failure or sexual inadequacy. Silence protects privacy while at the same time foreclosing both challenges to assumptions that fertility is the norm and any counterdiscourse to the heteronormative, profamily society in Ireland. I show how the reproduction of silence about infertility is a legacy of Ireland's history, reproductive politics, and the cultural idiom of choice. I argue that support networks and Internet bulletin boards on websites create opportunities to dialogue in silence, reproducing isolation rather than creating public discourse
Aesthetics · Art · Fertility · Infertility · Norm (philosophy · Political science · Politics · Population · Reproduction · Silence · Sociology · Stigma (botany · Demography · Gender Studies · Historical Studies on Reproduction, Gender, Health, and Societal Changes · Law · Psychology · Reproductive Health and Contraception · Reproductive Health and Technologies
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Commentary
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Interactive effects of social support and disclosure on fertility-related stress
Terms of Engagement
Secrecy
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Embodied Progress
Closed Wounds of the Chest, and the Physician's Place in a Chest Team.--I
Between History and Histories
The Elusive EmbryoHow Women and Men Approach New Reproductive Technologies
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Gender ironies of nationalism
‘Irishness’, the 1937 Constitution, and Citizenship
Disrupted Lives
The Politics of Sexual Morality in Ireland
Feminists Theorize the Political
Gender, familism and housing
Embodied Progress
Challenging Dominant Discourses
Middle Eastern Masculinities in the Age of New Reproductive Technologies
Exposing Silence as Cultural Censorship
| Unique citing works | 14 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 0,25 |
| Citation span | 1969 - 2025 (57) |
| Citation velocity | recent |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 14 |