Description
Book Synopsis 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.
Trade Review “Being a Sperm Donor is a theoretically elaborate book with some intriguing data and illuminating case studies, which shed light on the complexity of sperm donors’ experiences and motivations… In a field where most empirical studies have focused on the perspectives of women and couples who are recipients of donor sperm, Mohr’s research is a welcome contribution that brings to the fore stories that are rarely heard.” • Medical Anthropology Quarterly
“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
Table 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
