Constructing Surrogacy: A Thematic Analysis of Online Surrogacy Discourse

• In Event: Student Forum Roundtables Session
  In Refereed Roundtable (90 minute): Roundtable 17: Family, Relationships and Household Dynamics

Abstract

For decades, the issue of paid surrogacy has drawn sustained scrutiny from sociologists concerned with the acceleration of biogenetic essentialism, the marketization of gestation, and the exploitation of vulnerable reproductive workers. And yet, while existing research has extensively examined the experiences of surrogate workers and intended parents (IPs), little is known about how the general public makes sense of paid surrogacy. This project addresses that gap by asking: How do non-specialist publics talk about paid surrogacy? What might constructions of surrogacy suggest about contemporary notions of family, gender, and labor amid expanding reproductive tourism, biohacking, and technofixing? To answer these questions, I analyze over 30 discussion threads regarding surrogacy (7,735 individual comments) on Mumsnet Talk, a UK-based digital discussion forum. Using computational text analysis, I identify statistically significant thematic clusters, which are subsequently examined through a thematic analysis informed by grounded computational theory. Drawing on a Foucauldian understanding of discourse, through which discourse materially produces knowledge and social realities, this study examines how issues of family, reproductive work, and technology raised by commercial surrogacy are debated and contested outside expert or institutional contexts.

Author

• Ginger Green Adams, CUNY-Graduate Center