DOCSLIB.ORG

Introduction: Making Gender Matter: Drug-Using Women, Embodiment, and the Epistemologies of Ignorance

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Introduction: Making Gender Matter: Drug-Using Women, Embodiment, and the Epistemologies of Ignorance Notes Introduction: Making Gender Matter: Drug-Using Women, Embodiment, and the Epistemologies of Ignorance 1. N. Tuana (2006) in ‘The Speculum of Ignorance: The Women’s Health Movement and Epistemologies of Ignorance’ argues that social movements have often resisted ‘epistemologies of ignorance’ and that this tactic was a ‘key strategic technology of the women’s health movement’. Tuana urges scholars studying knowledge production practices, as we are in this book, to ‘account for not knowing, that is, for our lack of knowledge about a phe- nomena [sic] or, in some cases, an account of the practices that resulted in a group unlearning what was once a realm of knowledge’. 2. This term first appeared in the editorial introduction to Deviant Bodies, edited by Jacqueline Urla and Jennifer Terry (1995), and was defined as ‘the historically and culturally specific belief that deviant social behaviour (how- ever that is defined) manifests itself in the materiality of the body, as a cause or an effect, or perhaps as merely a suggestive trace’ (2). 3. D. Weinberg (2002), ‘On the Embodiment of Addiction’, Body and Society, 8, 4: 1–19. 4. Throughout we use ‘postclassical paradigm’ and ‘epistemological paradigm’ or ‘mode of knowledge’ interchangeably to emphasize the epistemology of embodiment on which knowledges of the gendered body are based. 5. Riska (2010) lays these out in ‘Gender and Medicalisation Theories’, in A. E. Clarke, L. Mamo, J. R. Fosket, J. R. Fishman, and J. K. Shim (eds), Biomedicalization: Technoscience, Health, and Illness in the U.S. Durham, NC: Duke University Press. 6. The emphasis on drug addiction changing brain structure and function in permanent and irreversible ways (Leshner, 1997) has been superseded by dominant notions of neuroplasticity and adaptation (Malabou, 2008). What effect these will have on the drug field remains to be seen, as we are aware of few scholars who take these ideas up outside the neurosciences. 7. For an example of the divergence between two movements that share mutual interests, see L. M. Paltrow (2001), ‘The War on Drugs and the War on Abortion: Some Initial Thoughts on Their Connections, Intersections, and the Effects’, Southern University Law Review, 28, 201. 8. See http://www.avaproject.org.uk/our-projects/stella-project.aspx (accessed 7 October 2010) (emphasis ours). 9. See ‘Report of National Advocates for Pregnant Women, Submission to the United Nations Universal Periodic Review, Ninth Session of the Working Group, Human Rights Council’, April 2010 at http:// advocatesforpregnantwomen. org/NAPW_UPRSubmissionUSA.pdf (accessed 1 August 2010). The NAPW report documents human rights abuses to pregnant women in the US, stat- ing that ‘pregnancy can make women the target of criminal investigation, incarceration, counterproductive civil child welfare interventions, and forced 203 204 Notes medical procedures in the United States. At the same time, access to services that ensure dignity and informed medical decision-making are being limited arbitrarily’ (1). 10. For instance, see ACMD (2007b) Drug Facilitated Sexual Assault. 11. The conceptual underpinnings of epigenetics concern gene-environment interactions. Today the field often conflates epidemiology and genetics – and has been offered as a potential harbinger of a new era of attention to ‘social’ or environmental factors in genetic research. 12. See also for example, Jellinek (1960); Vaillant (1973); Edwards et al. (1976); and Plant (1981). 13. Interview conducted by E. Ettorre with C. Fazey, 15 November 2009. 14. In the US, medical care for pregnant women is referred to as ‘prenatal care’, whereas in Britain it is called ‘antenatal care’. 15. Interview conducted by N. Campbell with B. G. Reed, 16 January 2008. 16. Interview conducted by N. Campbell with B. G. Reed, 16 January 2008. 17. Although the terms ‘expressive’ and ‘instrumental’ are often attributed to Talcott Parson, they are from the work of Morris Zelditch (1955) that appeared in a co-edited book of which Talcott Parsons was an editor. For Parsons’ own work on the family, see T. Parsons (1942), ‘Age and Sex in the Social Structure of the United States’, American Sociological Review, 7, 5: 604–16; T. Parsons (1959), ‘The Social Structure of the Family’, in R. Ashen (ed.), The Family: Its Functions and Destiny, New York: Harper and Row. 18. Interview conducted by Elizabeth Ettorre with Betsy Thom, 13 November 2009. 19. TRANX was the National Tranquilliser Advisory Council, which was funded for two years by the Department of Health in December 1983. It was founded by the co-ordinator, Joan Jerome, who had been a benzodiazepine user for 17 years (see Ettorre 1986e). 20. Concerns about suicidality and increased ‘suicidal ideation’ of both adults and children on antidepressants have mitigated the triumphalism in both the US and the UK. 21. See Spivak’s 1993 interview with Sara Danius and Stefan Jonsson in Boundary 2, 20.2, 24–50. 22. In the UK, the national agencies are the Department of Health, the Department for Work and Pensions, and the Department of Communities and Local Government. The NTA is a special health authority within the National Health Service, established by the British Government in 2001 to improve avail- ability, capacity and effectiveness of treatment for drug misuse in England. As part of the NTA, the National Drug Treatment Monitoring System (NDTMS) collects, collates, and analyses information from and for those involved in the drug treatment sector. The NDTMS is a development of the Regional Drug Misuse Databases, which have been in place since the late 1980s (see: http://www.nta.nhs.uk/ndtms.aspx (accessed 7 October 2010). In the US, the federal Department of Health and Human Services houses SAMHSA, which contains the Center for Substance Abuse Prevention and the Center for Substance Abuse Treatment. Research is located in the National Institute on Drug Abuse, an institute within the National Institutes of Health, which also contains the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism. State agencies, which combine drug and alcohol Notes 205 prevention and treatment services, have oversight of treatment provision and service delivery, which is administered at the local county level in the US as well as through private healthcare providers. Treatment services vary state to state, so women’s access to treatment depends largely upon in which state they reside. 23. However, SAMHSA and some of the state agencies, such as California and Massachusetts, have been friendly to women’s movement actors and thus women’s treatment guidelines in the US have adopted an approach con- sonant with the ‘relational’ aspects of the postclassical epistemology (see Treatment Improvement Protocol 51, which we analyse later). 1 Getting Gender on the Agenda: A History of Pioneers in Drug Treatment for Women in the United States and the United Kingdom 1. The New York City Welfare Council indicated a 700 per cent increase in 1950 over 1946, although the total number of teenagers involved remained unknown. No one knew how many addicts there were. The figures came from the Research Center for Human Relations, New York University, then con- ducting the classic study published as The Road to H (New York: Basic Books, 1964). 2. L. Bender (1961). ‘State Care of Emotionally and Socially Disturbed Adolescents’, in E. M. Thornton (ed.). Planning and Action for Mental Health. London: World Federation for Mental Health. 200–15; and ‘Drug Addiction in Adolescence’, Comprehensive Psychiatry, 4, 3 (1963): 181–94. The first peak arose in the wake of the Harrison Act from 1918–19. 3. The institution at Bedford Hills was named the Westfield State Farm from 1932 to 1970, when it was changed to the Bedford Hills Correctional Facility. It is now a maximum security facility for approximately 800 women over age 16. The original New York state reformatory for women was legislated in 1892, and operated by the State Board of Charities once it opened in 1901. One year after the name was changed to Westfield, a separate prison section was opened – thus there was both a prison and a reformatory operating on the site. The facility was also referred to as ‘Hudson’. 4. Segregation of specific populations was not a new idea at the Westfield State Farm, which had operated a Division for Mentally Defective Delinquent Women on the site of the former Rockefeller Laboratory of Social Hygiene after news of ungovernable inmates became a public scandal between 1915 and 1919. From 1920 to 1932 women found to be of ‘low intelligence’ were transferred to the DMDDW. After 1932 the name of the institution was changed to the Bedford Hills Correctional Facility. See http://www. archives.nysed.gov/a/research/res_topics_legal_corrections_inst_bedford. shtml (accessed 10 April 2011). 5. Correspondence from J. Lowry to J. V. Bennett, 27 January 1955. 6. Memo to US Marshals from J. V. Bennett, 9 April 1957; cf. 26 June 1956. All correspondence quoted in this section from the National Archives and Records Administration in College Park, Maryland, RG 129, Box 25, ‘Lewisburg to Lexington, Bureau of Prisons’. 206 Notes 7. Connecticut had one of the earliest state-funded public inebriate hospitals in the country, founded on the notion that inebriety was a disease appro- priately treated through medical means (see S. W. Tracy (2005). Alcoholism in America: From Reconstruction to Prohibition. Baltimore, MD, Johns Hopkins University Press. 123–9). 8. Mann was one of the most powerful women within Alcoholics Anonymous, working to found NIAAA in 1970. Her book was an important touchstone for those seeking to treat alcoholics. 9. On Blume’s role in the fight for labels warning consumers of alcoholic beverages of their dangers during pregnancy, see J. Golden (2005). Message in a Bottle: The Making of Fetal Alcohol Syndrome. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 88–9. 10. The 1957 article was based on study of 46 alcoholic women and 55 alco- holic men in Connecticut outpatient clinics and an additional 37 alcoholic women committed to State Farm.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Voluntary Sterilization of Inmates for Reduced Prison Sentences
    Adams Final Article 3.0 (Do Not Delete) 12/15/2018 4:02 PM VOLUNTARY STERILIZATION OF INMATES FOR REDUCED PRISON SENTENCES ELISE B. ADAMS* In May 2017, a Tennessee judge issued a standing order allowing inmates to receive thirty days’ jail credit in exchange for undergoing a voluntary sterilization procedure. Although the order was ultimately rescinded, this Article will address the constitutional and ethical concerns that a district court would have considered had the order not been rescinded. While inmates can always choose to waive their constitutional rights, the coercive nature of prisons—explained in the unconstitutional conditions doctrine—may compromise a prisoner’s ability to provide voluntary consent. The constitutionality of the order largely depends on the level of scrutiny a court applies. Regardless of the order’s constitutionality, the adverse ethical and social ramifications outweigh any potential benefits that could come from such an order. This order would also give too much power to state governments over an individual’s reproductive freedoms. Instead of automatically reducing an inmate’s sentence after undergoing a sterilization procedure, drug offenders should have the opportunity to choose from several different birth control options that could possibly lead to a reduced sentence. I. BACKGROUND What lengths would you go to snip thirty days off your prison sentence? Many inmates in White County, Tennessee asked themselves this very question in May 2017, after Judge Sam Benningfield signed a standing order1 allowing inmates to receive jail credit in exchange for undergoing a procedure providing long-term birth control, which included either a vasectomy2 for males or a Nexplanon implant3 for females—a procedure that usually makes women infertile for approximately three years.4 Inmates could receive two days’ credit for completing Copyright © 2018 by Elise B.
    [Show full text]
  • Vulnerable Birth Mothers and Repeat Losses of Infants to Public Care
    Cover Page Title: Vulnerable birth mothers and repeat losses of infants to public care: is targeted reproductive health care ethically defensible? Author names and affiliations Dr Karen ����������� Dr Mike ����� Professor Judith ������� Dr Bachar ������� ��. ���� �������� Ms Sophie �������� Ms Claire ������ a. School of Nursing, Midwifery and Social Work, University of Manchester, Oxford Road, Manchester, England M13 9PL b. Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust, Tavistock Centre, 120 Belsize Lane, London, England NW3 5BA c. Brunel University, Mary Seacole Building 301A, Uxbridge, England UB8 3PH Corresponding Author: Dr Karen ����������� Senior Lecturer in Socio-Legal Studies, School of Nursing, Midwifery and Social Work, University of Manchester, Oxford Road, Manchester M13 9PL. Tel: 0044 (0)7810313671, 1 Email: [email protected] Acknowledgements: The Nuffield Foundation 2 Abstract This article aims to advance debate about the ethics of targeted reproductive health care for birth mothers who have experienced recurrent care proceedings. Making reference to new research evidence that reports the scale of the problem of repeat care proceedings in England, the article considers the role that enhanced reproductive health care might play in helping mothers exit a cycle of care proceedings. Emerging practice initiatives are introduced which are all stretching the boundaries of statutory intervention, by working intensively with mothers following removal of children to public care. The central argument of this paper is that a positive interpretation of rights provides a warrant for providing enhanced access to contraception, but this must be part and parcel of a holistic, recovery focused approach to intervention. Caution is also raised in respect of the reasons that may lie behind a pattern of rapid repeat pregnancy for this particular group of women.
    [Show full text]
  • Coercion in California: Eugenics Reconstituted in Welfare Reform, the Contracting of Reproductive Capcity, and Terms of Probation Janet Simmonds
    Hastings Women’s Law Journal Volume 17 Article 5 Number 2 Summer 2006 1-1-2006 Coercion in California: Eugenics Reconstituted in Welfare Reform, the Contracting of Reproductive Capcity, and Terms of Probation Janet Simmonds Follow this and additional works at: https://repository.uchastings.edu/hwlj Part of the Law and Gender Commons Recommended Citation Janet Simmonds, Coercion in California: Eugenics Reconstituted in Welfare Reform, the Contracting of Reproductive Capcity, and Terms of Probation, 17 Hastings Women's L.J. 269 (2006). Available at: https://repository.uchastings.edu/hwlj/vol17/iss2/5 This Note is brought to you for free and open access by the Law Journals at UC Hastings Scholarship Repository. It has been accepted for inclusion in Hastings Women’s Law Journal by an authorized editor of UC Hastings Scholarship Repository. For more information, please contact [email protected]. SIMMONDS - FOR CHRISTENSEN 4/12/2006 9:48 AM. Coercion in California: Eugenics Reconstituted in Welfare Reform, the Contracting of Reproductive Capacity, and Terms of Probation Janet Simmonds∗ I. INTRODUCTION In an era where courts are reaffirming landmark right to privacy decisions,1 such as Griswold v. Connecticut,2 Eisenstadt v. Baird,3 and Roe v. Wade,4 and expanding the scope of a constitutionally protected right to privacy, it is seemingly unthinkable to imagine that the exercise of such rights is being legally perverted to promote eugenic ideals. However, this is precisely what has been happening. In particular, this Note addresses how the state of California and private actors within the state are using legally sanctioned means to coerce women into making decisions regarding their reproductive capacities that are in effect, and perhaps in purpose, eugenic in nature.
    [Show full text]
  • Forced Sterilization
    FORCED STERILIZATION: THE BLURRED LINE BETWEEN JUSTIFIED AND ILLEGITIMATE COERCION by Rosa M.E. Román A Thesis Submitted to the Faculty of The Harriet L. Wilkes Honors College in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Bachelor of Arts in Liberal Arts and Sciences with a Concentration in Political Science The Harriet L. Wilkes Honors College of Florida Atlantic University Jupiter, Florida May 2017 FORCED STERILIZATION: THE BLURRED LINE BETWEEN JUSTIFIED AND ILLEGITIMATE COERCION by Rosa M.E. Román This thesis was prepared under the direction of the candidate’s thesis advisor, Dr. Mark Tunick, and has been approved by members of her supervisory committee. It was submitted to the faculty of The Harriet L. Wilkes Honors College and was accepted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Bachelor of Arts in Liberal Arts and Sciences. SUPERVISORY COMMITTEE: __________________________ Dr. Mark Tunick __________________________ Dr. Kevin Lanning __________________________ Dr. Ellen Goldey Dean, Harriet L. Wilkes Honors College _____________ Date ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS First and foremost, to the people impacted by compulsory sterilization, thank you for sharing your stories. Your experiences allow people like to me to analyze a practice that for many was unjustified. To my thesis adviser, Dr. Mark Tunick, and second reader, Dr. Kevin Lanning, I extend my sincere gratitude. Thank you for your unwavering patience and critical advice and critiques, not only in pursuing this project, but throughout my undergraduate studies. Most importantly, thank you to my mother, Rosemary Jiménez, brothers, Destino and Max Román, and godparents, Catalina and Angel Rivera. Your emotional support and constant love have shaped me into the driven and hard-working woman I am today.
    [Show full text]
  • Crack Mothers, Crack Babies, and Black Male Dope Dealers Productions of Deviance During America's Crack Cocaine Panic in the 1980S
    University of Central Florida STARS HIM 1990-2015 2011 Crack mothers, crack babies, and black male dope dealers productions of deviance during america's crack cocaine panic in the 1980s Chantelle Yandow University of Central Florida Part of the Religion Commons Find similar works at: https://stars.library.ucf.edu/honorstheses1990-2015 University of Central Florida Libraries http://library.ucf.edu This Open Access is brought to you for free and open access by STARS. It has been accepted for inclusion in HIM 1990-2015 by an authorized administrator of STARS. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Recommended Citation Yandow, Chantelle, "Crack mothers, crack babies, and black male dope dealers productions of deviance during america's crack cocaine panic in the 1980s" (2011). HIM 1990-2015. 1191. https://stars.library.ucf.edu/honorstheses1990-2015/1191 CRACK MOTHERS, CRACK BABIES, AND BLACK MALE DOPE DEALERS: PRODUCTIONS OF DEVIANCE DURING AMERICA’S CRACK COCAINE PANIC IN THE 1980s by Chantelle Renee Yandow A Thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Honors in the Major Program in Religious Studies in the College of Arts and Humanities and in the Burnett Honors College at the University of Central Florida Orlando, Florida Spring Term 2011 Thesis Chair: Dr. Claudia Schippert © 2011 Chantelle Renee Yandow ii ABSTRACT A moral panic erupted during the 1980s among the American public when stories about crack cocaine saturated the media. In this thesis I analyze how discursive productions of deviancy operated in the CBS news documentary: 48 Hours on Crack Street (1986) and other print news sources at that time.
    [Show full text]
  • Preventing Project Prevention
    Preventing Project Prevention Preventing Project Prevention A collection of blog posts and other resources by Stuart Sorensen Most of this material is also available from: http://stuartsorensen.wordpress.com/category/project-prevention-2/ www.stuartsorensen.wordpress.com Page 1 Preventing Project Prevention Contents April 2010 Project Prevention: eugenics by the back door p.4 Letter to the local paper p.5 May 2010 Why Project Prevention looks like a good idea p.7 23rd May 2010: And so the eugenics begins p.9 The case against Project Prevention p.11 To those who think Project Prevention is legal in UK p.17 July 2010 Project Prevention amends its plans for UK p.18 Interview with Project Prevention UK p.19 September 2010 Even the Catholic Church is opposed to Harris’ Project Prevention p.20 October 2010 Project Prevention active in UK again p.21 Project Prevention updates p.22 Open letters to care workers p.23 Excellent set of questions from Andrea at Wired in p.25 Kaleidoscope does not support payment for sterilisation after all. P.25 Alan Mitchell’s vasectomy p.26 Sorry, Barbara but we’re here to stay p.27 Lies, damn lies and statistics p.29 Project Prevention’s cynical manipulation p.30 www.stuartsorensen.wordpress.com Page 2 Preventing Project Prevention November 2010 What’s next – targetting the poor? Actually, erm, yes – that’s right. P.35 Strange Quarks p.36 We did it p.36 How we beat Project Prevention p.37 What am I missing? P.40 Welsh Assembly against Project Prevention p.45 Project Prevention Watch on Twitter p.46 December 2010
    [Show full text]
  • 11 Why Caring Communities Must Oppose Crack/Project
    WHY CARING COMMUNITIES MUST OPPOSE C.R.A.C.K./PROJECT PREVENTION: HOW C.R.A.C.K. PROMOTES DANGEROUS PROPAGANDA AND UNDERMINES THE HEALTH AND WELL BEING OF CHILDREN AND FAMILIES LYNN M. PALTROW* INTRODUCTION Many people have lauded C.R.A.C.K. (Children Requiring a Caring Kommunity), also known as Project Prevention,1 as a sensible and socially responsible program.2 This program offers $200 for current * Lynn M. Paltrow, J.D. is Executive Director of the National Advocates for Pregnant Women, an organization dedicated to protecting the rights and interests of pregnant and parenting women and their children. Information about NAPW can be found at www.advocatesforpregnantwomen.org. Ms. Paltrow would like to thank: New York University Law Students Julie D. Capehart, Elizabeth Frankel, Lynn Lu, and Skyla Olds; Rutgers Newark Law Student Emily K. Berger; NAPW staff Wen- Hua Yang, Acrea McIntosh, and Wyndi Marie Anderson; Jill C. Morrison, staff attorney for the National Women’s Law Center; Sheigla Murphy, Director of the Center Substance Abuse Studies, Institute for Scientific Analysis; Theryn Kigvamasud’Vashti, Community Organizer for the Communities Against Rape and Abuse; Jennifer Johnson-Spence, Librarian at the Drug Policy Alliance; and Dean Richard Rakos, College of Arts and Sciences, Cleveland State University for their assistance and many contributions to this article. 1. At some point in its organizational development, the founders of C.R.A.C.K began referring to it as “Project Prevention.” Because the organization continued to use the name “C.R.A.C.K.” in public documents and statements at the time this article was written, this article will refer to the organization as C.R.A.C.K.
    [Show full text]
  • Columbia Center for Law & Culture Workshop February 23, 2016 Kevin
    Columbia Center for Law & Culture Workshop February 23, 2016 Kevin Maillard Syracuse University “The Average Single Black Father” Dear Colleagues, Thank you for taking the time to read my work. For the past five years, I have researched the rights of single fathers. These projects have covered the efficacy of putative father registries, property rights in children, and reproductive freedom. All of these projects invoke constitutional principles of substantive due process, procedural due process, equal protection, and privacy. These same inquiries remain pertinent in my current project, which is a trade book on the limitations of modern fatherhood. This book will convey these legal problems and social conflicts to a general audience. It mainly argues that presumptions of incompetency—but not unfitness—for modern fathers complicate men’s standing as equal parents. The paper that I have attached for the workshop was previously published in the Michigan State Law Review. This take on “deadbeat dads” considers the issue of reproductive conditional probation, where unmarried fathers who fall behind on child support payments receive probation with a stipulation of not fathering additional children. Upon violation of these terms, the father faces imprisonment. Upon full payment of the arrears, the condition would be released. For poor fathers, who are the primary targets of these schemes, debt satisfaction is a virtually guaranteed impossibly. As a result, reproduction is permanently curtailed—a reality mutually acknowledged by judge and defendant. In this article, I argue that these probation conditions violate principles of substantive due process and act more like population control and symbolic censure rather than actual child support enforcement.
    [Show full text]