Childfreedom in Popular Culture: A Feminist Analysis of Poor Things
摘要
This chapter explains that while representations of motherhood abound in popular culture, depictions of childfreedom are more sparse. To trace discursive constructions of non-motherhood, or childfreedom, Hernández analyzes popular culture discourses about the 2023 film Poor Things. The chapter begins with an overview of key terms, such as pronatalism, childlessness, and childfreedom. The chapter then presents a textual analysis of news and popular culture articles about Poor Things from websites such as Films Fatale, Decider, NPR, and Time Magazine. Hernández concludes that an analysis of both the film and its reception yields important insights about how childfreedom, agency, and power are represented in popular culture, particularly in a media sphere saturated with pronatalism.