This study is an examination of conservative Christian pronatalist discourse in the contemporary United States and the myriad ways it endangers American women and children. Insofar as conservative Christian pronatalism is part of broader religious and pollical movement, this study also examines related conservative Christian discourses asserting anti-intellectualism, libertarian economics, Christian nationalism, white supremacy and supernaturalist and apocalyptic imaginations. I argue that pronatalism must be studied as part of this chorus. ', 'Conservative Christian pronatalism is an umbrella term for the various patriarchal systems and discourses that use conservative pan-Christian logics to undermine female reproductive agency, to reduce women’s personhood to their bodies’ reproductive functions, and subsequently to claim those bodies as public objects, subject to public (male) control. It is a discourse that reinforces the notion that women’s highest personal or spiritual purpose is procreation, and that all women want, or should want, to be mothers, even at the cost of their own lives. But it is also a discourse that provides some women a deep sense of meaning. It sacralizes the maternal body, which in turn, puts it at terrible risk. It alienates women from their own bodies while bonding them eternally to the supernatural beings their now-sacred bodies are capable of birthing. It is a threat to women’s health and safety, and it is a place where some women find healing, security and even experience transcendence. It celebrates women who risk their lives for their pregnancies and shames women who do not. But it also transforms grief into hope and pain into transcendence, and gives birth to angels.', 'This dissertation uses a case study of an overtly pronatalist organization, the Institute in basic life Principles, to unveil the logics of the larger discourse and to reveal how they buttress and are buttressed by narratives that assert American exceptionalism, Christian nationalism, and white supremacy. From there, this study shows how these narratives are disseminated through American popular culture via new media platforms like social media, and reality television. I argue that although these narratives remain a danger to women and children, they often go unnoted, or are imagined as pro-feminist, pro-mother, and are illegible as religion at all.

Last modified

• 10/21/2019

Creator

• Myev Alexandra Rees

DOI

• https://doi.org/10.21985/n2-z7td-m155

Subject

• Religious Studies

Keyword

• Conservative Christian
• Motherhood
• Pronatalism
• Women
• Evangelical

Date created

• 2018-01-01

Resource type

• Dissertation

Rights statement

• In Copyright