Gendering Voices of Resistance and Resilience: Unraveling Women’s Stories of Bodily Autonomy and Reproductive Health

Hadas Segal

“Dead Men Don’t Rape”: Delilah Bon’s Rap as a Battle Cry in the Arena of Women’s Histories

This project explores the rhetorical evolution of abortion debates from the twentieth century to the present, anchored by the 2022 rap single “Dead Men Don’t Rape” by Delilah Bon. Released in July 2022 amidst global outrage over the U.S. Supreme Court’s overturning of Roe v. Wade, the song boldly tackles issues of gendered violence, bodily autonomy, and systemic hypocrisy. Bon’s powerful lyric, “you get so offended when I say ‘dead men don’t rape,’ but where is your anger when I say ‘women are dying’?” serves as a catalyst for examining historical rhetoric surrounding abortion.

Beginning with Paulina Luisi, Uruguay’s first female physician, who in 1916 reframed sexual education and abortion access using eugenics language—promoting “genetic instinct training” for men and advocating for male sterilization—this project traces pivotal shifts through history. It explores mid-century events like the Thalidomide crisis and the impact of post-WWII eugenics in Europe, alongside U.S. pro-life rhetoric that employed Holocaust analogies and fetal personhood to marginalize women’s experiences.

Utilizing gender and sexuality studies methodologies, this work applies feminist discourse analysis to reveal how gendered power dynamics shape rhetorical strategies. It examines women’s strategic adherence to masculine/scientific norms (as seen in Luisi), the “cult of fetal personhood” that sidelines the pregnant woman, and contemporary rap as a space for resistant, embodied feminist rage.

Selah Cantwell

Gentle Hands and Latex Gloves: Doctors, Parteras, and Childbirth in Early to Mid-Twentieth Century Northern New Mexico

Early to mid-twentieth century New Mexico was a desert in the literal sense, but also a healthcare desert for many who lived across the state, particularly those who lived in rural areas and whose socioeconomic statuses did not permit them to pay for the services of a doctor. Many rural communities, particularly in northern New Mexico, also had long-standing traditions regarding health and well-being, including curanderismo, a form a traditional medicine among many New Mexican communities that combined spirituality, religion, herbal remedies (remedios), and knowledge passed down from generation to generation to help heal ailments among communities.

With the rise of the professionalization of medicine in the United States and New Mexico’s new status as a state in 1912, parteras, or midwives who practiced curanderismo, faced doubt and questioning from members of the medical community on a national and state level, much of which appeared to be based in ethnocentrism and sexism. Eventually, this doubt resulted in the regulation of midwifery. This shift caused the development of complex relationships between doctors and parteras, and influenced New Mexico’s healthcare.

Through the examination of language used in oral histories from four doctors and partera Jesusita Aragón, we can begin to see the ways these relationships functioned, and how connections between these healthcare providers resulted in better outcomes for mothers and babies. We can also see the contrasts evident in the attitudes of male doctors, a female doctor, and Jesusita- all of whom provide pieces of the same story in New Mexico’s medical history- by using a gendered lens to analyze language and beliefs about midwives in early to mid-twentieth century northern New Mexico.

Yixin Zhang

Obligation or Choice? Intersectionality and Reproductive Autonomy among Gynecologic Cancer Survivors

In recent years, advances in medical technologies have steadily increased the survival rate of gynecologic cancers (GC); however, the trend toward younger diagnoses, coupled with the inevitable yet unpredictable varying degrees of fertility impairment, has profoundly disrupted female survivors’ life trajectories and reconstruction of their everyday life. Adopting a feminist qualitative research approach, this study aims to deeply understand the lived experience of GC survivors, tracing their journey from initial diagnosis to long-term survivorship. I conducted semi-structured, in-depth interviews with 20 gynecological cancer survivors in China, with particular attention to their interactions and negotiations with healthcare professionals, partners, and families regarding fertility preservation and childbearing decision-making processes. Thematic analysis and multi-level coding were employed to analyze the interview data.

The initial findings suggest that reproductive choice remains limited, conditional, and deeply unequal: particularly for women from marginalized communities. Even as feminist ideas and discourses on bodily autonomy have spread, a cancer diagnosis prompts a profound reset of reflection and negotiation surrounding reproductive decision-making. Women often endure these sufferings largely alone, whether in clinical settings, navigating fertility preservation decisions with medical professionals, or within families, negotiating childbearing plans with partners and relatives. Moreover, they frequently experience confusion, distress, and internal conflict, often blaming themselves for potential constraints or setbacks imposed by patriarchal assumptions and normative expectations regarding women’s reproductive roles. This process vividly exposes the deeply embedded and sometimes hidden logic of patriarchy in modern society.