Bodies as Territory, Bodies in Crisis: Reproductive Politics in Argentina. With Prof Barbara Sutton

Cuerpa Politica

Professor Barbara Sutton is based in the Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Department, at University at Albany. Professor Sutton's scholarly interests include body politics, human rights, collective memory, globalization, and women's activism particularly in Latin American contexts.

In this episode, Professor Sutton gives an overview of the history of reproductive politics in Argentina, citing periods of military dictatorship, economic crises and the recent ‘marea verde’ or ‘green tide’ which resulted in the legalisation of abortion in December 2020. We also discuss Professor Sutton’s conceptual framework of ‘women’s bodily worlds’, the notion that women’s bodies have been configured as territories for civilising the nation in Argentina, and motherhood as a "hegemonic mode of feminine embodiment”. The conversation also turns to the centrality of the body to social transformation and political resistance.

Links

Sutton, Barbara, and Nayla Luz Vacarezza, eds. Abortion and Democracy: Contentious Body Politics in Argentina, Chile, and Uruguay. Routledge, 2021.https://www.routledge.com/Abortion-and-Democracy-Contentious-Body-Politics-in-Argentina-Chile-and/Sutton-Vacarezza/p/book/9780367529413

Sutton, Barbara. "Poner el cuerpo: Women's embodiment and political resistance in Argentina." Latin American Politics and Society 49.3 (2007): 129-162. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1548-2456.2007.tb00385.x

Sutton, Barbara. Bodies in Crisis: Culture, Violence, and Women's Resistance in Neoliberal Argentina. Rutgers University Press, 2010. https://www.rutgersuniversitypress.org/bodies-in-crisis/9780813547404