The metaphors of commercial surrogacy

rethinking the materiality of hospitality through pregnant embodiment

Luna Dolezal

pp. 221-244

in: Clara Fischer, Luna Dolezal (eds), New feminist perspectives on embodiment, Basingstoke, Palgrave Macmillan, 2018

Abstract

The aim of this chapter is to explore some of the dominant metaphors within the context of the third-party reproduction practice commonly referred to as "commercial surrogacy.' In particular, the metaphor of hospitality will be examined to explore the manner through which this metaphor shapes how we conceive of women, maternity, kin relationships and the pregnant body. Considering the recent work of the feminist scholar Irina Aristarkhova, new feminist conceptions of embodied hospitality will be brought into dialogue with theories of hospitality in the work of Emmanuel Levinas, along with the various discourses of commercial surrogacy which deploy the metaphor. It will ultimately be argued that pregnancy is a human and maternal process that has constitutional status, involving complex subjective affects and roles through relations of care and nurturing. As a result, the gestating mother, who creates space for and welcomes the "other,' should not be effaced or forgotten.

Cited authors

Levinas Emmanuel