Enduring Shame : A Recent History of Unwed Pregnancy and Righteous Reproduction / Heather Brook Adams.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Adams, Heather Brook, author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Unmarried mothers--United States.

Unmarried mothers.

Teenage pregnancy--United States.

Teenage pregnancy.

Pregnancy--Psychological aspects.

Pregnancy.

Abortion--United States--Psychological aspects.

Abortion.

Women's rights--United States.

Women's rights.

United States--Social life and customs--20th century.

United States.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (253 pages)

Edition:

First edition.

Place of Publication:

Columbia, South Carolina : University of South Carolina Press, [2022]

Summary:

"It was not long ago that unmarried pregnant women in the United States hid in maternity homes and relinquished their "illegitimate" children to "more deserving" two-parent families-all in the name of keeping secret shameful pregnancies. Although times and practices have changed, reproductive politics remain a fraught topic and site of injustice, especially for poor women and women of color. Enduring Shame explores two volatile decades in American history-the 1960s and '70s-to trace how shame remained a dynamic and animating emotion in increasingly public interventions into unwed and teen pregnancy.Heather Brook Adams makes a case for recasting this era not as a time of gaining reproductive rights for all but rather as a moment when communicative practices of shame and blame cultivated new forms of injustice. Drawing from personal interviews, archival documents, legal decisions, public policy, journalism, memoirs, and advocacy writing, Adams articulates the rhetorical power of shame to explain how the American public was persuaded to think about reproduction, sexual righteousness, and unwed pregnancy during a time of presumed progress"-- Provided by publisher.

"It was not long ago that unmarried pregnant women in the US hid in maternity homes and relinquished their "illegitimate" child to a more "deserving" two-parent family-all in the name of keeping secret a shameful pregnancy. While times and practices have changed, reproductive politics remains a fraught topic and site of injustice, lingering sexual shame contributing to racialized and class-based public division. Enduring Shame explores two volatile decades in US history-the 1960s and the 1970s-to trace how shame remained a dynamic and animating emotion in increasingly public ways of addressing "unwed" and "teen" pregnancy. Heather Brook Adams makes a case for recasting this era not as a time of gaining reproductive rights for all, but rather as a moment when communicative practices of shame and blame cultivated new forms of injustice. Drawing from personal interviews, archival documents, legal decisions, public policy, journalism, memoirs, and advocacy writing, Adams articulates the rhetorical power of shame to explain how the American public was persuaded to think about reproduction, sexual righteousness, and unwed pregnancy during a time of codified "progress." Despite the aspirational goals of reproductive liberation, public sentiment frequently upheld supremacist notions of whiteness that were based on ideas of racial, economic, and moral fitness-even as these sentiments informed new public policy. By centering evidence of shame as a communicated or threatening force, the book maps a range of experiences across these decades from women's experiences of hiding and "revirginalization" in homes for unwed mothers to policy and legal changes that are typically understood as proof of shame's dissipation. Adams explores evidence related to Title IX legislation, Roe v. Wade, and the unrelenting Hyde Amendment that has long restricted reproductive autonomy for poor (often non-white) women, and Congressional interventions of the late 1970s meant to curb an "epidemic" of "babies having babies." Rhetorical historiography and questions of reproductive justice guide the analysis and women's own voices provide essential perspectives and context for this recent history. This book recovers a misunderstood part of women's recent history by considering why reproductive politics remain so volatile given women's previous gains in this area and why shame continues to figure so centrally and powerfully in public discourse about limitations on women's reproductive and sexual freedoms"-- Provided by publisher.

Contents:

Cover

Enduring Shame

Title

Copyright

Dedication

Contents

List of Illustrations

Acknowledgments

Introduction: Sex, Shame, and Rhetoric

One Unwed Pregnancy and Radial Rhetorics of Shame

Two New Permissiveness, Stigma, and Unwed Pregnancy in the Early 1970s

Three Macrochange, Reproductive Agency, and the Stickiness of Shame

Four Rhetorical Blame and Pregnant Teens in the Late 1970s

Conclusion: The Legacies of Righteous Reproduction

Notes

Bibliography

Index.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on publisher supplied metadata and other sources.

Description based on print version record.

Other Format:

Print version: Adams, Heather Brook Enduring Shame

ISBN:

9781643362953

164336295X

OCLC:

1296690529