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What does it mean to be a man in our biomedical day and age? Through ethnographic explorations of the everyday lives of Danish sperm donors, Being a Sperm Donor explores how masculinity and sexuality are reconfigured in a time in which the norms and logics of (reproductive) biomedicine have become ordinary. It investigates men's moral reasoning regarding donation, their handling of transgressive experiences at the sperm bank, and their negotiations of gender, sexuality, intimacy, and relatedness, showing how the socio-cultural and political dimensions of (reproductive) biomedicine become intertwined with men's intimate sense of self.
List of contents
Acknowledgments
Introduction: Being a Sperm Donor
Chapter 1. Becoming a Sperm Donor: Conceptual Pathways
Chapter 2. Regimes of Living: Donating Semen and the Pleasure of Morality
Chapter 3. Affective Investments: Masturbation and the Pleasure of Control
Chapter 4. Biosocial Relatedness: Being Connected and the Pleasure of Responsibility
Chapter 5. The Limits of Biosocial Subjectivation: Male Shame and the Displeasure of Gender Normativity
Conclusion: Biosocial Subjectivation Reconsidered
Bibliography
Index
About the author
Sebastian Mohr is Senior Lecturer in Gender Studies at the Centre for Gender Studies, Karlstad University. As an ethnographer of gender, sexuality, and intimacy, his work explores the intersections of gender, sexuality, and intimacy in the areas of health politics, (digital) health and (reproductive) technology, masculinity, and militarization. He has a special interest in the history of queer ethnography and in how ethnography’s epistemological, methodological, and ethical underpinnings relate to queer-feminist theorizing and empirical research. Sebastian is Managing Editor for NORMA: International Journal for Masculinity Studies, Editor at Women, Gender & Research (Kvinder, Køn & Forskning), and on the Editorial Board of Reproductive Biomedicine & Society Online. He is Co-Coordinator of the Research Network Sexuality of the European Sociological Association.
Summary
What does it mean to be a man in our biomedical day and age? Through ethnographic explorations of the everyday lives of Danish sperm donors, Being a Sperm Donor explores how masculinity and sexuality are reconfigured in a time in which the norms and logics of (reproductive) biomedicine have become ordinary. It investigates men’s moral reasoning regarding donation, their handling of transgressive experiences at the sperm bank, and their negotiations of gender, sexuality, intimacy, and relatedness, showing how the socio-cultural and political dimensions of (reproductive) biomedicine become intertwined with men’s intimate sense of self.
Additional text
“Mohr is to be commended on having carried out an ethnographic study that is thorough and sensitive. Not only that, the work shows considerable theoretical ambition in its analysis of biomedical subjectivation at the intersection of gender, sexuality, and assisted reproductive technologies… informed by a comprehensive grasp of kinship, feminist and queer theories.” • Bob Simpson, University of Durham
“An important, original contribution to the anthropology of reproduction. Mohr does an excellent job of presenting multiple, fascinating perspectives on this subject. The ethnographic material is superb and his framing of it is appropriate and convincing.” • Linda Layne, University of Cambridge
