Instigating interreligious marriages and intercaste ties is the first step towards totalitarian reproductive futurism
Published Date – Tue, 30 May 23 at 01:00am
go through Pramod Potassium Nayar
When politicians speak of controlling birth rates or express anxiety about population growth among certain groups—and they do so often with increasingly fanatical voices—it’s a harbinger of politics at its worst: biopolitics, where population plays an important role in healthcare, economics and politicized terms on the political front.
Many Dystopian Novels of the 20th Centuryday Century has been concerned with the future of humanity and the biopolitics around it.Novels that discuss mass sterility, such as this The Handmaid’s Tale (Margaret Atwood) or son of man (PD James), fearing that humanity can no longer guarantee a continuous future. Gendered plots, it goes without saying, these novels’ horrific imaginings paint what critic Rebekah Sheldon calls “regenerative futurism,” a “two-sided redemption narrative: someday, the future will be foretold from our present actions.” Redemption from chaos; until then, we must prevent a future of chaos by replicating the present through our children.
“Reproductive futurism” has two contexts, both relevant today.
age, anxiety
First, in our time, biological matter from tissues to embryos has been fully commercialized. The holy trinity of nations, the medical profession, and corporations known as “biocapital” invests in the future of humanity and speculates on the biology of that future. Second, concerns about the fertility rates of specific ethnic groups and communities that they may take over the country – this needs more attention.
Reproductive futurism emerged historically as a legal measure to control reproduction and eventually as eugenics. When Adolf Hitler declared that “in my state the mother is the most important citizen,” he was right. The Prevention of Inherited Offspring Act (1934) allowed for the forced sterilization of any citizen exhibiting any one of the genetic disorders:
“Anyone with a genetic disease can be surgically rendered infertile [sterilization], as long as it holds. . . because any child he might produce would be highly likely to inherit some serious physical or mental defect. “
In 1938, Irene Schönbein of Freiburg wanted to marry a doctor, and under a 1931 law she had to obtain a certificate from the health authorities. One form has a list of ten physical characteristics, and a list of associated values in descending order of requirements. For example, for Body Type, a doctor can choose Muscular (athletic), Full, Slim, or Petite. For eye color, the options are: “Blue, Grey, Green, Light Brown, and Dark Brown.”
Of the ten most valuable attributes, Irene was awarded nine, leading to the conclusion that Irene is predominantly of Nordic origin. She was found to be in good health and could have children, and her “broad pelvis” was noted. Irene Schönbein married after successfully passing the requirements to become a German wife/mother, her husband would continue to be very interested in twin births and other medical curiosities, the man we know as the “Angel of Death”, Dr. Josef Mengele.
A variant expression of this form of reproductive futurism in a totalitarian state is depicted in The Handmaid’s Tale.
unstable genetics
At Gilead in Atwood, the vast majority of people are sterile. We are told: “Some fertility failures can undoubtedly be traced back to the widespread use of various birth control methods, including abortion, in the pre-Gilead period”. Atwood then pointed to a variety of ecological factors:
“Stillbirths, miscarriages, and genetic deformities are common and increasing, a trend associated with various nuclear power plant accidents, shutdowns, and sabotage, as well as chemical and biological spills that were characteristic of that period – war stockpiles and toxic waste disposal sites .”
Atwood believes that genetic concerns will affect women as the state has greater control over them and the reproductive process.
Gilead tackles mass infertility by identifying ‘handmaids’ Handmaidens were assigned to politically powerful families. During their childbearing days, the maid was raped by the head of the household “commander” in front of her legal wife, and eventually the maid became pregnant. Once a child is born, he or she is integrated into the family, while the maid is sent to another family. Maids like Irene Mengele were “pre-approved” to have children, because childbearing was not a personal choice but a state decision. Totalitarianism, then, is not only about political and economic control: it also demands control over sex and reproduction.
Kazuo Ishiguro never let Me Go Imagine a time when mass creation of human cloning is a matter of national policy. These clones are raised in specialized schools until they reach a certain age at which they begin to “donate” their vital organs for human survival, thus suggesting a different form of reproductive futurism in which humans will create a new category of life to come. Serve humanity.
overall management
Eugenics and reproductive futurism are measures akin to a form of stewardship that ensures the future existence of humans through the management of genetic material. In other words, the management of the human future is a coercive economy built around reproduction. Butler, Atwood, and Ishiguro imagine this managed coercive economy in different ways. Reproductive futurism as a means of managing the future of humanity on Earth might be about the fusion of humans with alien life forms; men, women, and surrogate mothers; or humans and clones.
In Octavia Butler’s heterogeneous The trilogy, which cohabited with humans in the form of aliens, enabled humans to survive on a devastated Earth.Aliens Oankali reprogrammed human genetic material so “you’d be [humans] The opportunity to live on your Earth – not die on it”. Humanity’s future requires alien life forms to merge with humans.
In Atwood, family continuity is maintained only through the sexual servitude of the maid, who has no role after childbirth. The clones exist only to serve Hiroshi Ishiguro’s humans. The three authors point to a common theme: that future-oriented human stewardship replicates the violence of human nature as it seeks to alter human lifespan and health.
These are cautionary tales meant to show us that when the specter of reproduction is raised, it creates a social imagination in which people will demand greater accountability for the most intimate aspects of their lives. control. When the agitation for interfaith marriage and inter-caste ties in a land that naturalizes (not) honor killings is the first step toward totalitarian regenerative futurism. Who can marry and/or have children will be the subject of state policy.
Octavia Butler aptly had her final words on the subject: “You control animals and people by controlling their reproduction”.
