Overview

The 1990s marked a new era in family formation. Increased access to donor sperm enabled single women and lesbian couples to create their families on their own terms, outside the bounds of heterosexual married relationships. However, emerging “alternative” families were not without social and political controversy. Women who chose to have children without male partners faced many challenges in their quest to have children. Despite current wider social acceptance of single people and same sex couples becoming parents, many of these challenges continue.   In Romancing the Sperm, Diane Tober explores the intersections between sperm donation and the broader social and political environment in which “modern families” are created and regulated. Through tangible and intimate stories, this book provides a captivating read for anyone interested in family and kinship, genetics and eugenics, and how ever-expanding assisted reproductive technologies continue to redefine what it means to be human.  

Full Product Details

Author:   Diane Tober
Publisher:   Rutgers University Press
Imprint:   Rutgers University Press
Dimensions:   Width: 15.20cm , Height: 1.50cm , Length: 22.90cm
Weight:   0.340kg
ISBN:  

9780813590783

ISBN 10:   0813590787
Pages:   240
Publication Date:   30 November 2018
Recommended Age:   From 17 to 99 years
Audience:   General/trade ,  College/higher education ,  Professional and scholarly ,  General ,  Tertiary & Higher Education
Format:   Paperback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   In Print  
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Table of Contents

Table of Contents Chapter 1: Murphy Brown and the Lesbian Baby Boom Chapter 2: Technologies and Politics of Reproduction Chapter 3: Semen to Go: Choosing Conception Alternatively Chapter 4: Semen Transactions: Donor Screening and the Regulation of Sexuality Chapter 5: Grass Roots Eugenics and the Fantasy Donor Chapter 6: Semen as Gift, Semen as Goods: Reproductive Workers and the Market in Altruism Chapter 7: From “Old Eggs” to “Odysseus’ Journey”—the Phenomenology of Infertility Chapter 8: What’s Alternative About Family? Chapter 9: From Murphy Brown to Modern Families Chapter 10: Conclusion: Towards a New BioPoliTechs of Emerging Families Afterward Acknowledgements References About the Author  

Reviews

What gives Tober's account unique insight into modern families is that it captures decades of social and academic change....[A] welcome addition to sociological classes on family or reproduction, and some chapters would be particularly useful in classes on gender, masculinity, or sexuality. -- Social Forces Desperately Seeking Kin: Genetic Longing in the Donor Gamete Context, by Diane Tober-- Los Angeles Review of Books The book will be useful to scholars and students interested in broader historical perspectives on assisted reproduction, and its clear language and readability will make it appealing in undergraduate courses in medical anthropology, science, technology, and society, kinship and family, and gender and sexuality. -- Medical Anthropology Quarterly Tober has written a retrospective ethnographic study of the first generation of women openly to buy sperm to make families. The book is about female choice, or, as she puts it, 'the biopolitics' of choice when women have resources of their own and the sperm of various male types can be bottled, screened, studied for motility, frozen, catalogued and transported. -- Times Literary Supplement Diane Tober, Romancing the Sperm: Shifting Biopolitics and the Making of Modern Families New Books Network New Books in Anthropology podcast interview-- New Books Network - New Books in Anthropology IVFML Season 2, Episode 7: Is Egg And Sperm Donation 'Worth It'? interview with Diane Tober-- Huff Post FML Becoming Family' podcast RT American interview with Diane Tober-- RT America A fascinating and engaging book! It just gets more and more interesting as it goes and is never boring. The quotes from those interviewed are perfect and poignant--they give so much insight into the struggles undergone by those choosing some form of artificial conception. The book thoroughly dispels traditional notions of family and shows the multiple and highly creative ways in which families are currently being generated in this brave new world of assisted reproduction. For many, this book will be not only a fascinating, but also an empowering read. --Robbie Davis-Floyd author of Birth as an American Rite of Passage and Ways of Knowing about Birth: Mothers, Midwives, M [Tober's] groundbreaking book shows us that modern families might be built on contradictions, and yet the kids are still alright. -- Feminist Formations Written with scholarly attention to detail, and including a wealth of firsthand testimonies from women who have chosen to use sperm banks, Romancing the Sperm is fascinating and insightful from cover to cover. Highly recommended. -- Midwest Book Review An exceptional ethnography of modern reproduction, Romancing the Sperm centers lesbian couples and single women as they engage with sperm donors and banks in a quest to become pregnant. Tober's extensive research spans decades, from the 1990s to the present, documenting critical shifts over time in sperm banking institutional and modern family formation practices. An accessible read, the book makes a tremendously valuable contribution to feminist writing on reproductive technologies and politics. --Rajani Bhatia author of Gender before Birth: Sex Selection in a Transnational Context

A fascinating and engaging book! It just gets more and more interesting as it goes and is never boring. The quotes from those interviewed are perfect and poignant--they give so much insight into the struggles undergone by those choosing some form of artificial conception. The book thoroughly dispels traditional notions of family and shows the multiple and highly creative ways in which families are currently being generated in this brave new world of assisted reproduction. For many, this book will be not only a fascinating, but also an empowering read. --Robbie Davis-Floyd author of Birth as an American Rite of Passage and Ways of Knowing about Birth: Mothers, Midwives, M RT American interview with Diane Tober--RT America IVFML Season 2, Episode 7: Is Egg And Sperm Donation 'Worth It'? interview with Diane Tober--Huff Post FML Becoming Family' podcast An exceptional ethnography of modern reproduction, Romancing the Sperm centers lesbian couples and single women as they engage with sperm donors and banks in a quest to become pregnant. Tober's extensive research spans decades, from the 1990s to the present, documenting critical shifts over time in sperm banking institutional and modern family formation practices. An accessible read, the book makes a tremendously valuable contribution to feminist writing on reproductive technologies and politics. --Rajani Bhatia author of Gender before Birth: Sex Selection in a Transnational Context

A fascinating and engaging book! It just gets more and more interesting as it goes and is never boring. The quotes from those interviewed are perfect and poignant--they give so much insight into the struggles undergone by those choosing some form of artificial conception. The book thoroughly dispels traditional notions of family and shows the multiple and highly creative ways in which families are currently being generated in this brave new world of assisted reproduction. For many, this book will be not only a fascinating, but also an empowering read. --Robbie Davis-Floyd author of Birth as an American Rite of Passage and Ways of Knowing about Birth: Mothers, Midwives, M An exceptional ethnography of modern reproduction, Romancing the Sperm centers lesbian couples and single women as they engage with sperm donors and banks in a quest to become pregnant. Tober's extensive research spans decades, from the 1990s to the present, documenting critical shifts over time in sperm banking institutional and modern family formation practices. An accessible read, the book makes a tremendously valuable contribution to feminist writing on reproductive technologies and politics. --Rajani Bhatia author of Gender before Birth: Sex Selection in a Transnational Context

The book will be useful to scholars and students interested in broader historical perspectives on assisted reproduction, and its clear language and readability will make it appealing in undergraduate courses in medical anthropology, science, technology, and society, kinship and family, and gender and sexuality. --Medical Anthropology Quarterly Desperately Seeking Kin: Genetic Longing in the Donor Gamete Context, by Diane Tober--Los Angeles Review of Books Diane Tober, Romancing the Sperm: Shifting Biopolitics and the Making of Modern Families New Books Network New Books in Anthropology podcast interview--New Books Network - New Books in Anthropology Tober has written a retrospective ethnographic study of the first generation of women openly to buy sperm to make families. The book is about female choice, or, as she puts it, 'the biopolitics' of choice when women have resources of their own and the sperm of various male types can be bottled, screened, studied for motility, frozen, catalogued and transported. --Times Literary Supplement IVFML Season 2, Episode 7: Is Egg And Sperm Donation 'Worth It'? interview with Diane Tober--Huff Post FML Becoming Family' podcast RT American interview with Diane Tober--RT America A fascinating and engaging book! It just gets more and more interesting as it goes and is never boring. The quotes from those interviewed are perfect and poignant--they give so much insight into the struggles undergone by those choosing some form of artificial conception. The book thoroughly dispels traditional notions of family and shows the multiple and highly creative ways in which families are currently being generated in this brave new world of assisted reproduction. For many, this book will be not only a fascinating, but also an empowering read. --Robbie Davis-Floyd author of Birth as an American Rite of Passage and Ways of Knowing about Birth: Mothers, Midwives, M An exceptional ethnography of modern reproduction, Romancing the Sperm centers lesbian couples and single women as they engage with sperm donors and banks in a quest to become pregnant. Tober's extensive research spans decades, from the 1990s to the present, documenting critical shifts over time in sperm banking institutional and modern family formation practices. An accessible read, the book makes a tremendously valuable contribution to feminist writing on reproductive technologies and politics. --Rajani Bhatia author of Gender before Birth: Sex Selection in a Transnational Context Written with scholarly attention to detail, and including a wealth of firsthand testimonies from women who have chosen to use sperm banks, Romancing the Sperm is fascinating and insightful from cover to cover. Highly recommended. --Midwest Book Review [Tober's] groundbreaking book shows us that modern families might be built on contradictions, and yet the kids are still alright. --Feminist Formations

A fascinating and engaging book! It just gets more and more interesting as it goes and is never boring. The quotes from those interviewed are perfect and poignant--they give so much insight into the struggles undergone by those choosing some form of artificial conception. The book thoroughly dispels traditional notions of family and shows the multiple and highly creative ways in which families are currently being generated in this brave new world of assisted reproduction. For many, this book will be not only a fascinating, but also an empowering read. --Robbie Davis-Floyd author of Birth as an American Rite of Passage and Ways of Knowing about Birth: Mothers, Midwives, M RT American interview with Diane Tober--RT America IVFML Season 2, Episode 7: Is Egg And Sperm Donation 'Worth It'? interview with Diane Tober--Huff Post FML Becoming Family' podcast Tober has written a retrospective ethnographic study of the first generation of women openly to buy sperm to make families. The book is about female choice, or, as she puts it, 'the biopolitics' of choice when women have resources of their own and the sperm of various male types can be bottled, screened, studied for motility, frozen, catalogued and transported. --Times Literary Supplement Diane Tober, Romancing the Sperm: Shifting Biopolitics and the Making of Modern Families New Books Network New Books in Anthropology podcast interview--New Books Network - New Books in Anthropology Desperately Seeking Kin: Genetic Longing in the Donor Gamete Context, by Diane Tober--Los Angeles Review of Books The book will be useful to scholars and students interested in broader historical perspectives on assisted reproduction, and its clear language and readability will make it appealing in undergraduate courses in medical anthropology, science, technology, and society, kinship and family, and gender and sexuality. --Medical Anthropology Quarterly Written with scholarly attention to detail, and including a wealth of firsthand testimonies from women who have chosen to use sperm banks, Romancing the Sperm is fascinating and insightful from cover to cover. Highly recommended. --Midwest Book Review An exceptional ethnography of modern reproduction, Romancing the Sperm centers lesbian couples and single women as they engage with sperm donors and banks in a quest to become pregnant. Tober's extensive research spans decades, from the 1990s to the present, documenting critical shifts over time in sperm banking institutional and modern family formation practices. An accessible read, the book makes a tremendously valuable contribution to feminist writing on reproductive technologies and politics. --Rajani Bhatia author of Gender before Birth: Sex Selection in a Transnational Context

A fascinating and engaging book! It just gets more and more interesting as it goes and is never boring. The quotes from those interviewed are perfect and poignant--they give so much insight into the struggles undergone by those choosing some form of artificial conception. The book thoroughly dispels traditional notions of family and shows the multiple and highly creative ways in which families are currently being generated in this brave new world of assisted reproduction. For many, this book will be not only a fascinating, but also an empowering read. --Robbie Davis-Floyd author of Birth as an American Rite of Passage and Ways of Knowing about Birth: Mothers, Midwives, M Desperately Seeking Kin: Genetic Longing in the Donor Gamete Context, by Diane Tober--Robbie Davis-Floyd Los Angeles Review of Books The book will be useful to scholars and students interested in broader historical perspectives on assisted reproduction, and its clear language and readability will make it appealing in undergraduate courses in medical anthropology, science, technology, and society, kinship and family, and gender and sexuality. --Robbie Davis-Floyd Medical Anthropology Quarterly Tober has written a retrospective ethnographic study of the first generation of women openly to buy sperm to make families. The book is about female choice, or, as she puts it, 'the biopolitics' of choice when women have resources of their own and the sperm of various male types can be bottled, screened, studied for motility, frozen, catalogued and transported. --Robbie Davis-Floyd Times Literary Supplement Diane Tober, Romancing the Sperm: Shifting Biopolitics and the Making of Modern Families New Books Network New Books in Anthropology podcast interview--Robbie Davis-Floyd New Books Network - New Books in Anthropology IVFML Season 2, Episode 7: Is Egg And Sperm Donation 'Worth It'? interview with Diane Tober--Robbie Davis-Floyd Huff Post FML Becoming Family' podcast RT American interview with Diane Tober--Robbie Davis-Floyd RT America Written with scholarly attention to detail, and including a wealth of firsthand testimonies from women who have chosen to use sperm banks, Romancing the Sperm is fascinating and insightful from cover to cover. Highly recommended. --Robbie Davis-Floyd Midwest Book Review An exceptional ethnography of modern reproduction, Romancing the Sperm centers lesbian couples and single women as they engage with sperm donors and banks in a quest to become pregnant. Tober's extensive research spans decades, from the 1990s to the present, documenting critical shifts over time in sperm banking institutional and modern family formation practices. An accessible read, the book makes a tremendously valuable contribution to feminist writing on reproductive technologies and politics. --Rajani Bhatia author of Gender before Birth: Sex Selection in a Transnational Context [Tober's] groundbreaking book shows us that modern families might be built on contradictions, and yet the kids are still alright. --Robbie Davis-Floyd Feminist Formations

Author Information

Diane Tober is an assistant adjunct professor at the University of California, San Francisco Institute for Health and Aging. In addition to her research, she also produced and directed the documentary film, The Perfect Donor.  

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