L’épée de Damoclès

This article presents the first results of qualitative research conducted in France from February to June 2012, through sixteen semi-structured interviews with women exposed in utero to diethylstilbestrol (DES), a teratogenic molecule that influences the development of the reproductive apparatus by...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Giulia Colavolpe Severi
Format: Article
Language:fra
Published: Laboratoire d'Ethnologie et de Sociologie Comparative 2019-07-01
Series:Ateliers d'Anthropologie
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Online Access:https://journals.openedition.org/ateliers/11135
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Summary:This article presents the first results of qualitative research conducted in France from February to June 2012, through sixteen semi-structured interviews with women exposed in utero to diethylstilbestrol (DES), a teratogenic molecule that influences the development of the reproductive apparatus by provoking anomalies liable to cause infertility. The aim of this article is to describe what women exposed in utero to DES have experienced in their bodies in relation to pregnancy. The data show a complex interaction between this experience and our society’s deeply rooted discourse and ideologies: in particular, the rejection of death, the view of procreation as an uninterrupted, linear process, and the association of women’s bodies with procreation through the attribution of certain characteristics like gentleness, flexibility and the image of the protruding abdomen.
ISSN:2117-3869