Malfunctioning Babies?
The womb as a means of production.
Have you heard about Hitler and how he killed about six million Jews because he wanted to create a population made up of individuals with ideal traits. You know “ideal” traits like blue eyes, and white skin. Did you also know that we are currently heading towards a Down Syndrome free world?
Gayatri Spivak critiques Karl Marx and Sigmund Freud for not addressing the womb as a means of production, and refers to the idea of womb-envy. She states that by looking at the womb as a site of production a women will then undo the alienation seen in Marx’s and Freud’s work. Womb-envy then is the idea that males are jealous of women’s ability to make babies.
“Our task in rewriting the text of Freud is not so much to declare the idea of penis-envy rejectable, but to make available the idea of a womb-envy as something that interacts with the idea of penis-envy to determine human sexuality and the production of society.”
Evidence of the womb being a source of production is seen in what is done when the product (a baby) is predicted to be “defected.” Ninety percent of women in the United States abort their baby if it is prenatally diagnosed with Down Syndrome. Here we see how “the product” is predicted to not have the capacity to successfully function as a means of production in society. It is believed that this baby will grow to take away from society without giving back to it, and will be a “burden” to its care givers and society so the decision to abort is sold as an easy way out of the situation.
Interestingly doctors have played a big part in attempting to convince pregnant women to abort if the fetus is diagnosed with Down Syndrome. In these cases we see the invasion of privacy of this women and her “product.” Similar to when a pregnant women is bombarded with baby name suggestions and belly is randomly touched by strangers because her baby is now seen as a public entity, we see doctors suggesting abortion to women whose product is predicted to “malfunction.” These cases show how when a women becomes pregnant the public feels as if the “product” is now open for the public and they are allowed to touch it, and give advise for it.
In these cases we see how the female womb is portrayed as a means of production which the public feels entitles to help with decision taking. We see the public attempting to convince the women that her life and her child's life will not be successfully lived and therefore the women should not create her product. Not only have the doctors felt the need to take over the women’s womb but also her life by trying to convince her that it is a horrible decision to have a baby with an extra chromosome.
This is proof of the womb as a means of production because it demonstrates what is done with a “product” who is believed will not grow up to be a successful means of production. Additionally we often see the public incorporate their opinion into the decision on weather to keep the baby or not instead of letting the mother take her decision solo.
