Childfree Across the Disciplines

DAVINIA THORNLEY is a senior lecturer in film, media, and communication studies at the University of Otago in Aotearoa New Zealand. She is the editor of True Event Adaptation: Scripting Real Lives and the author of Cinema, Cross-Cultural Collaboration, and Criticism: Filming on an Uneven Field.

"Offering a timely rejoinder to pronatalism, Childfree Across the Disciplines features numerous authors who see 'reproductive consciousness' as a key component of reproductive justice. This volume’s perspective is especially vital in a world that too often assumes childlessness to be a sacrifice, default, or deficit, rather than accurately representing what childfreedom is: a reasoned and purposeful attempt to forge identities and life pathways that are not circumscribed by reproductive imperatives." - Suzanne Leonard (co-editor of Imagining "We" in the Age of "I": Romance and Social Bonding in Contemporary Culture) "Childfree Across the Disciplines is a first of its kind, bringing academic and activist voices together as it challenges readers to rethink what they think they know to be true about the childfree choice, who makes it, and why." - Amy Blackstone (author of Childfree by Choice: The Movement Redefining Family and Creating a New Age of Independence) "Offering a timely rejoinder to pronatalism, Childfree Across the Disciplines features numerous authors who see 'reproductive consciousness' as a key component of reproductive justice. This volume’s perspective is especially vital in a world that too often assumes childlessness to be a sacrifice, default, or deficit, rather than accurately representing what childfreedom is: a reasoned and purposeful attempt to forge identities and life pathways that are not circumscribed by reproductive imperatives." - Suzanne Leonard (co-editor of Imagining "We" in the Age of "I": Romance and Social Bonding in Contemporary Culture) "Childfree Across the Disciplines is a first of its kind, bringing academic and activist voices together as it challenges readers to rethink what they think they know to be true about the childfree choice, who makes it, and why." - Amy Blackstone (author of Childfree by Choice: The Movement Redefining Family and Creating a New Age of Independence)

• List of Figures and TablesIntroduction: Childfree across the Disciplines by Davinia ThornleyPart I: Childfree SubjectivitiesChapter 1. Affirming Social Value: Women without Children [republished] by Berenice FisherChapter 2. Childfree Minority Stress by Melanie Brewster and Olivia SnowChapter 3. “You will Change Your Mind”: The Controlling Function of Microaggressions on the Minds of Parents and Non-Parents by Adi AviviChapter 4. Selfish is Not a Four-Letter Word: Self-Care and Other-Care among Childfree Women by Amanda Michiko ShigiharaPart II: Childfree RepresentationChapter 5. Childfree in Toyland [republished] by Christopher ClausenChapter 6. The Annual Global Childfree Event: International Childfree Day by Laura CarrollChapter 7. Reproductive Villains: The Representation of Childfree Women in Mainstream Cinema and Television by Natalia CherjovskyPart III: Childfree Economic and Environmental PerspectivesChapter 8. Excerpts from An Atypical Chick: A Gay Man in a Woman's Body [republished] by Rhonny DamChapter 9. The Breadwinner Dilemma: The Real and Opportunity Cost of Children by Laura S. ScottChapter 10. Voluntary Childlessness: An Upstream Choice in the Anthropocene by Erika M. AriasPart IV: Childfree RedefinitionsChapter 11: Recognizing Our Womanhood, Redefining Femininity [republished] by Laurie LisleChapter 12. Refusing to be Othered:  Re-defining the “Silent Bodies” of Childfree Women by Anna GotlibConcluding Thoughts by Davinia ThornleyNotes on ContributorsIndex