Reproductive wrongs : a short history of bad ideas about women / Sarah Ruden.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Ruden, Sarah, Author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Literature--History and criticism.

Literature.

Women in literature.

Sexism in literature.

Reproductive rights in literature.

Feminism.

Women--Public opinion--History.

Women--History.

Physical Description:

xvii, 220 pages ; 22 cm

Edition:

First edition.

Other Title:

Short history of bad ideas about women

Place of Publication:

New York, NY : Liveright Publishing Corporation, [2026]

Summary:

"Where do damaging ideas about women come from? The belief that granting women reproductive freedom poses a threat to a natural order, to "traditional" values, is a myth that has long dominated American politics, providing justification for increasing control over women's bodies and lives. It could not be further from the truth. In Reproductive Wrongs, acclaimed translator and independent scholar Sarah Ruden exposes how an ideology that vilified women in service of authoritarianism and power took hold. Beginning with Ovid's poetry, commissioned by Augustus, first emperor of Rome, and continuing through today, to the memoirs of an evangelical American "abortion survivor," Ruden shows how a doctrine of brutality against women was both invented and propagated. Reproductive Wrongs hinges on seven works that each marked key moments in this feminist, literary history of the West: The Pastoral Epistles introduced near-totalitarian measures to force childbearing in the early days of Christianity; The Hammer of the Witches outlined a program for demonizing women's fertility, justifying mass torture and killing during the Inquisition; And, Charles Dickens' The Chimes glorified the virtues of a large family, providing moral cover for a government campaign to raise birth-rates, thus filling a need for low-wage laborers in Industrial Britain. Illuminating, and vital, Reproductive Wrongs unearths the evolution of a deep radicalism that still rages into the 21st century, when half of the US population is once again threatened with restricted freedoms and totalitarian law"-- Provided by publisher.

Contents:

Preface

1: Dawn of the Dicks: The Roman Imperial Poet Ovid Inaugurates Antiabortion Propaganda

2: Pregnant and Foot-Washing and In the Kitchen: Early Christian Reproductive Backlash

3: It's the Baby, Stupid: Augustine's Neurosis, Our Theocracy

4: Hammered: A Monk Off His Head About Women's Bodies

5: Hell's Bells: Dickens Shills for Victorian Misery

6: This Looks Oddly Familiar: Eugenics and the Holy Image

7: You Can Make This Stuff Up: Antiabortion Messaging in Wonderland

Acknowledgments

Notes

Selected Bibliography

Index.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Other Format:

ebook version :

ISBN:

9781324075905

1324075902

OCLC:

1519449259

Publisher Number:

CIPO000336822