Black celebrities, reproductive justice and queering family: an exploration

Decades ago, political theorist Cathy Cohen reflected on the meaning and possibilities of coalition among groups as diverse as gay men and single mothers. This article focuses on Black women's fertility struggles as they navigate controlling images and the Black fertility mandate. I compare accounts of how celebrities and non-celebrities have discussed making families through reproductive technology, and whether we can read these narratives as attempting to redefine and even 'queer' family. Ultimately, while the horizons of reproductive technology are ever expanding, those of us who care about justice would do well to ask if and how, in the everyday operations of our life, the technology does anything to change how the particular society in which we are embedded views people on the reproductive margins, such as single mothers and others who 'queer' typical narratives of reproduction.