The Militarization of Women's Reproductive Bodies

Abstract

This dissertation examines how women’s reproductive (lactating, menstruating, birthing) bodies and choices are constructed by rhetorical processes of militarization. I consider what women’s militarized bodies tell us about the policing and containment of women’s reproductive health, lives, and choices in historical, contemporary, and futuristic dystopian texts. Overall, I argue that media texts reveal the many ways in which women’s bodies are policed, surveilled, confined, and disciplined often through contemporary discourses of choice and autonomy. Through temporal, topical, and typical triangulation, this work reveals that the militarization of women’s reproductive bodies is both pertinent and persistent, impacting women’s reproductive health in real-world contexts.