'Aren't men also involved in childbearing?': rendering the male reproductive body visible to resist gender inequality

Abstract

Extensive work has been conducted on constructions of the female body as risky, particularly in relation to reproduction (Martin, 1987; Rich, 1976; Ussher, 2006). In contrast, the male reproductive body generally remains in-visible (Oudshoorn, 2004). The analysis presented in this paper explores debate in 285 online responses to an article about gender-based differential pricing of health insurance. One of the discursive strategies drawn upon to defend this differential pricing is through familiar constructions of women’s bodies as ‘at risk’ due to reproductive potential. However, this justification for inequality is resisted within the corpus through explicitly rendering the male body as similarly ‘at risk’ of reproduction. By examining how both women’s and men’s reproductive bodies are made visible, this paper explores discursive practices around how gender inequality is (re)produced and resisted. In particular, we can see how rendering the male reproductive body visible works in this context to resist practices that disadvantage women relative to men, and expand the responsibility for reproduction beyond women and individual, to society as a whole.