Reproductive Technology and 'Sex Change' (was Re: homophobia)

Yoshie Furuhashi furuhashi.1 at osu.edu
Sat Jan 23 14:32:20 PST 1999


I mentioned reproductive technologies and I got the following (which is a composite from several posts), with the exception of Liza's reply:
>one
>of these new services like hellobaby.com where you can choose a sperm and
>egg donor online <snip>
>a surrogate mother <snip>
>a sex change <snip>
>>Deirdre McCloskey

Why is that the first things that come to people's minds when they hear the term 'reproductive technology' tend to go ilke the above? Because they are still exotic? Or is it a reflection of sex/gender/sexuality anxieties that headlines in the papers provoke? Baby M! Postmenopausal Pregnancy! Heather Has Two Moms! The End of the World (As We Know It) Is Coming!

When I wrote my post, I was thinking of something much more mundane, like condoms, the Pill, abortion, giving birth at a hospital vs. birthing at home with a midwife, etc. In a funny way, though, the replies I got really prove that reproductive technology, both in its mundane forms and how people imagine it to be, makes a lot of difference ideologically, not just materially.

Yoshie



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