The Liminal Chrysalis: Imagining Reproduction and Parenting Futures Beyond the Binary
The Liminal Chrysalis: Imagining Reproduction and Parenting Futures Beyond the Binary is an edited collection that works to identify and deconstruct many of the countless binaries that operate within the realms of parenting and reproduction.
Popular understandings of pregnancy are so pink-coded. It’s “pregnant ladies” and “expectant mothers” and bows and pastels, nesting and glowing. The intersections and overlaps of sexism, cissexism, and heteronormativity surround our understanding of pregnancy, and The Liminal Chrysalis is not that. The Liminal Chrysalis is a much needed collection that offers a space for pregnancy outside of womanhood, and stories from other places from which to become.
J Wallace Skelton is a PhD candidate at OISE, a seahorse papa, and a parent of three.
Weaving poetry, speculative fiction, and autobiography, with interviews, critical analysis and research, the authors take as their starting place that there is magical potential and possibility in the ambiguous, disorienting spaces of the in-between and the beyond. The collection challenges the constructedness of binaries connected to sex, gender, sexuality, and parenting roles, as well as the cis-, hetero-, repro-, trans- and amatonormativities which pervasively circulate and inform how we think about parenting and reproductive life.
The introductory chapter of the Liminal Chrysalis offers readers valuable knowledge on the binaries that exist in both language and social structures of western culture. In the work I do educating on gender diversity, I have found that reading excerpts from this anthology offers valuable perspectives on the family structures and lives of transgender and non-binary people as well as insight into the ways in which we often experience differential access to resource and care.
Nicola Hare (she/her)
Trans Connect Coordinator
ANKORS
www.ankorstransconnect.com
The collection amplifies the voices of non-binary authors among others, and tells stories of menstruation, pregnancy, abortion, assisted reproductive technologies, fertility preservation, parenthood, and activism in the face of violent binaries and reproductive injustices.
“This book is a vital contribution to the fields of transgender studies, reproductive health and family therapy. Through academic and creative writing, the readers can glean essential insights about what parenting beyond binaries means. A must read for anyone interested in reproductive justice and family studies.”
Alex Iantaffi, PhD, MS, SEP, CST, LMFT – author of Life Isn’t Binary, How To Understand Your Gender, and Gender Trauma.
