Sexuality and reproduction
Location: AgC221.1 (upper floor).
Programme:
Friday (October 9)
15:00-15:30 Åsa Ljungström (Stromstad Academy, Uppsala, Sweden): Wedlock unlocked. Patriarchy undermined by a Cultural Change since the 1960s
15:30-16:00 Antje Kampf (School of Medicine, Johannes Gutenberg-University, Germany): From a million to one – „natural“ male reproduction and the biomedical technology of sperm
16:00-16:30 Wening Udasmoro (Gadjah Mada University, Yogyakarta, Indonesia): Indonesian Feminists and the Dynamics of their Discourse on Abortion from Suharto to Reformasi Era
16:30-17:00 Muhammad Munir & Rana G., A Tahseen (STREET (NGO), Quetta, Pakistan): Gender, Sexuality and Health
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Approved participants in alphaphetical order
Kampf, Antje: From a million to one – „natural“ male reproduction and the biomedical technology of sperm
In 1958, a man had to have between 60-200 Billion sperm cells per mililitre ejaculate for successful reproduction, 50 years later biotechnological procedures such as ICSI (Intrazytoplasmatic sperm injection) and MESA (Microsurgical epididymal spermaspiration) have reduced this equation to a single sperm. This paper will analyse the underlying biomedical criteria and place these in the wider socio-historical context of the meaning of male bodies in the history of reproduction in the second half of the twentieth century. Using the example of ‚sperm tales’, born out of the biomedical technologies that went hand in hand with the establishment of andrology in the 1960s, the paper engages with the epistemic evolution of related biomedical theories and concepts of what constitutes a „natural“ and „normal“ male body. Central to this analysis will be Peter Conrad’s (2007) theory of biomedical knowledge production on the body and the ensuing medical objectivity and the medical objectification and construction of problematic identities. With many aspects of the medical history of male reproduction in the twentieth century still unexplored, the paper will focus on the growing intervention of biomedicine to “treat” male infertility by way of standardisation, classification and normalisation of male “materilities”.
Ljungström, Åsa: Wedlock unlocked. Patriarchy undermined by a Cultural Change since the 1960s
This contribution is to consider the change in regard of single mothers after the sex liberation debate in the early sixties when young people started to cohabit without marriage in Sweden. This became so commonly accepted that a wave of weddings just before 1990 was distinguished as a news-item. Sex out of wedlock used to be forbidden until 1917 when the concept ‘out of wedlock’ was officially stricken. Still, the concept of shame lived on for another fifty years. The word was used even in the 1970s. Social reforms of legislation and family economy were brought about by society, but to have a child before marriage remained a shame in most circumstances. For centuries the base of patriarchy was funded by means of controlling female fertility and sexuality. Modernity helped loosening its grip by secularization, women’s liberation and education, women as breadwinners, day-care of children in the welfare society. The modernisation of Sweden prepared the ground for the contraceptive pill. Not only did it work as contraception, since 1964 the easily available means changed the way of thinking. Those who experienced the conditions before 1964 and after know the difference. They elder ones still regard sexuality and reproduction an entity of marriage. The younger cohorts distinguish make a clear distinction between sex and reproduction. So the cultural change of the contraceptives turns out to be a difference in the mode of thinking, experiencing life, a new range of agency, even undermining patriarchy.
Munir, Muhammed & Tahseen, Rana G., A: Gender, Sexuality and Health
Introduction:
As a young Muslim nation with a complex anthropology, Pakistan continues to struggle with a common sense of identity. This struggle also touches our personal lives particularly amongst young people with severe identity and gender stereotyping issues, poverty and low levels of literacy. This confusion is propounded and manifests clearly in sexual behaviors and practices. Community based sexual health /HIV prevention programs must incorporate self-reflection, self-concepts and identity issues to ensure ownership and sustainability of their programs. Working on self-encourages/ facilitates strong self-concepts, which translates to assertive behavior, negotiation skills and a sense of rights. Gender identity refers to how one thinks of one’s own, gender: whether one thinks of oneself as a man (masculine) or as a woman (feminine). Society prescribes arbitrary rules or gender roles based on one’s sex. These gender roles are called feminine and masculine.
Methods/procedures:
Promote Peer education and educate public on gender sexuality- for behavior change. Exercise responsibility in sexual relationships, by abstinence addressing power imbalances, negotiation skills resisting pressure during sexual intercourse, encouraging contraception use. Gender Sexuality education must be a central component of development/reproductive health programs designed to prevent STIs.
Results:
Socio cultural framework is supremely gender and often-sexual relationships are framed by gender roles, power relationships, poverty, class, caste and custom, hierarchies of one sort of another. Term “man” is a male gender identity not a sexual identity. The phrase males who have sex with males is not about identities and desires it is about recognizing that there are many frameworks within which men/males have sex with males, many different self-identities, many different context of behavior.
Conclusions:
To bring ownership among individual/communities to work on STIs, HIV/AIDS prevention could only be achieved by incorporating self-concepts and identity issues. Must need to explore and understand male-to-male desires, as to involve men, if we are truly to develop effective and sustainable HIV/AIDS prevention strategies amongst males who have sex with male.
Udasmoro, Wening: Indonesian Feminists and the Dynamics of their Discourse on Abortion from Suharto to Reformasi Era
Abortion in Indonesia, as elsewhere, is considered both a political and social problem. The state attempts to regulate the practice at the political level through various laws and policies. Abortion relates primarily to control over women’s bodies and reproductive functions. These have been the objectives of the state’s focus from time to time, and considered its property to be governed as it sees fit. Indonesian society at large, including social actors from groups possessing their own religions, beliefs and arguments, has also contributed to the regulation of abortion. These social actors, such as the political, medical, international and religious actors as well as the feminists represent the views of different groups whose discourses are usually considered in the discussion of abortion in Indonesia. Despite the strong arguments in general refusing the practice of abortion, the Indonesian feminists had been insisting on their ideas about the importance of regulating abortion based on the interest of women. They started their struggle since the era of the second presidency of Suharto and continued to do so during the Reformasi era after 2000. The questions raised during that period included: What are the discourses the Indonesian feminists had been trying to emphasize in order to challenge the thinking of other actors, especially the conservative ones? What are the political opportunity structures they use in order to convince them? What are the strategies they utilize in challenging their ideas on the taboo of abortion? This article attempts to look at the dynamics of the Indonesian feminists using the competing discourses to highlight the struggle on abortion from Suharto to Reformasi eras.
Last update 8.10.2009.
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