Cynthia R. Daniels - Böcker

Exposing Men examines how ideals of masculinity have long skewed our societal--and scientific--understanding of one of the pillars of male identity: reproductive health. Only with the recent public exposure of men's reproductive troubles has the health of the male body been thrown into question, and along with it deeper masculine ideals. Whereas once mens sexual and reproductive abilities were the most taboo of topics, today erectile dysfunction is a multi-billion dollar business, and magazine articles trumpet male reproductive decline with headlines such as "You're Half the Man Your Father Was." Cynthia R. Daniels casts a gimlet eye on our world of plummeting sperm counts, spiking reproductive cancers, sperm banks, and pharmacological cures for impotence in order to assess the true state of male health. What she finds is male reproductive systems damaged by toxins and war, and proof piling up that men through sperm, pass on harm to the children they father. Yet, despite the evidence that mens health, as much as womens, significantly affects the vitality of their offspring, Daniels also sees a society holding on to outdated assumptions, one in which men ignore blatant health risks as they struggle to live up to antiquated ideas of manliness.

Exposing Men examines how ideals of masculinity - courage, strength, self-confidence, and protectiveness - have long skewed our societal, and scientific, understanding of one of the pillars of male identity: reproductive health. Only in recent years, with public exposure of men's reproductive troubles, has the health of the male body been thrown into question - and along with it deeper masculine ideals. Whereas once men's sexual and reproductive abilities were the most taboo of topics, today sperm banks advertise their "product" in flashy ads and magazine articles trumpet male reproductive decline. Cynthia R. Daniels casts a gimlet eye on plummeting sperm counts, spiking male reproductive cancers, declining birth rates of boys and the growth of industries to "correct" male infertility in order to assess the true state of male health. What she finds is male reproductive systems damaged by toxins and war and proof that men's health, as much as women's, significantly affects the vitality of their offspring. Nevertheless, Daniels shows that men ignore blatant health risks as they struggle to live up to antiquated ideas of manliness. Deftly explaining how our perception of men and women's reproductive functions have informed society's broader assumptions about gender roles, Exposing Men is for anyone interested in confronting and addressing the ever-changing landscape of sexual inequalities.

Some say the fetus is the “tiniest citizen.” If so, then the bodies of women themselves have become political arenas—or, recent cases suggest, battlefields. A cocaine-addicted mother is convicted of drug trafficking through the umbilical cord. Women employees at a battery plant must prove infertility to keep their jobs. A terminally ill woman is forced to undergo a cesarean section. No longer concerned with conception or motherhood, the new politics of fetal rights focuses on fertility and pregnancy itself, on a woman’s relationship with the fetus. How exactly, Cynthia Daniels asks, does this affect a woman’s rights? Are they different from a man’s? And how has the state helped determine the difference? The answers, rigorously pursued throughout this book, give us a clear look into the state’s paradoxical role in gender politics—as both a challenger of injustice and an agent of social control.In benchmark legal cases concerned with forced medical treatment, fetal protectionism in the workplace, and drug and alcohol use and abuse, Daniels shows us state power at work in the struggle between fetal rights and women’s rights. These cases raise critical questions about the impact of gender on women’s standing as citizens, and about the relationship between state power and gender inequality. Fully appreciating the difficulties of each case, the author probes the subtleties of various positions and their implications for a deeper understanding of how a woman’s reproductive capability affects her relationship to state power. In her analysis, the need to defend women’s right to self-sovereignty becomes clear, but so does the need to define further the very concepts of self-sovereignty and privacy.The intensity of the debate over fetal rights suggests the depth of the current gender crisis and the force of the feelings of social dislocation generated by reproductive politics. Breaking through the public mythology that clouds these debates, At Women’s Expense makes a hopeful beginning toward liberating woman’s body within the body politic.