ABSTRACT

This discussion paper takes as its starting point the marginal existence of men in the seemingly mono-gendered arena of childbearing, both as midwives and as service users. It seeks to explore how their problematic presence can be both accommodated and rejected within the limits of existing language which manifests itself most rigidly in the word ‘midwife’. I argue that ‘midwife’ has multiple meanings which are mobilized in different situations to call upon either a seemingly stable etymological understanding or a more fluid and adaptable semantic meaning. I engage in the heuristic device of ‘orientations’ inspired by the work of Sara Ahmed to illuminate how these multiple meanings serve to exclude people who do not identify as female. Lastly, I illustrate how a recent focus on gender-neutral and additive language to accommodate men into a historically exclusively female discourses has further exposed the limitations of the gendered word ‘midwife’ to be able to include people of all genders and none.

摘要

本讨论文件以男性在看似单一性别的生育领域的边缘存在为出发点，无论是作为助产士还是作为服务使用者。它试图探索如何在现有语言的范围内既能容纳又能拒绝她们有问题的存在，这种语言最严格地体现在“助产士”这个词中。我认为，“助产士”具有多种含义，这些含义在不同的情况下被调动起来，以呼唤看似稳定的词源理解或更灵活和适应性更强的语义含义。我采用受萨拉·艾哈迈德（Sara Ahmed）作品启发的“方向”启发式装置来阐明这些多重含义如何用于排除不认同女性的人。最后，