Womb Service: Motherhood and Surrogacy on American Sitcoms
摘要
This chapter views Roseanne’s tenth season (ABC 2018) and Fuller House (Netflix 2016–2020), both reboots of popular 1980s sitcoms that feature surrogacy, as case studies to chart the evolution of twenty-first century motherhood. These reboots reemerged in a politically polarized context where reproductive rights remain contested, and increased uses of assisted reproductive technology (ART) and surrogacy usher in profound questions about family formation, parenthood, and motherhood. The chapter draws from feminist television studies, motherhood studies, and feminist social philosophy to illustrate how these series reflect arguments for and against surrogacy. Odinak posits that Fuller House represents surrogacy as an altruistic practice that aids in creating families, while Roseanne characterizes it as immoral and unnatural, and that Fuller House and Roseanne ultimately employ surrogacy to bolster biological motherhood and the traditional family in response to a seemingly precarious political and cultural landscape.