The Icon and the Idealist: Margaret Sanger, Mary Ware Dennett, and the Rivalry That Brought Birth Control to America
生育的主權: 女性的避孕革命
內容介紹
女性能選擇避孕的權利得來不易，常受法律、宗教、科技和社會文化的影響，中世紀歐洲在基督教會的影響下，避孕被視為違反自然法則，禁止並受到懲罰。川普上個任期反對計劃生育和墮胎，對生育自由和避孕權的保障構成了挑戰，美國的避孕革命歷史在現在這個時間點特別值得回顧。
美國20世紀初兩位美國生育控制運動的領袖瑪格麗特·桑格(Margaret Sanger)和瑪麗·韋爾·丹尼特(Mary Ware Dennett)雖然共同目標是推進避孕權，但她們的理念與策略卻截然不同。瑪格麗特·桑格專注於直接行動，例如開設避孕診所以及成立「計劃生育聯盟」(Planned Parenthood)，她認為宣傳與挑戰法律是推動變革的關鍵。瑪麗·韋爾·丹尼特則主張通過法律改革來實現避孕權的合法化，並在華盛頓進行長期遊說。她致力於通過公開信息和性教育推廣避孕，並堅持這些知識應自由流通，而不應限於專業人士。這兩位意見領袖對於生殖自主權及避孕權在美國應該以何種方式實現，持有截然不同的願景。
瑪格麗特·桑格與瑪麗·韋爾·丹尼特之間的激烈個人及政治競爭持續了數十年，這場競爭對美國女性的生活產生了深遠的影響。《生育的主權: 女性的避孕革命》透過精心研究與生動的敘述，揭示了這兩位女性投身避孕運動的原因、她們衝突的起源，以及她們的失誤與突破如何對美國社會產生影響。
作者斯蒂芬妮·高頓(Stephanie Gorton)深入挖掘檔案，通過嚴謹的敘述手法，編織出兩位非凡女性的個人故事及美國在社會規範變革、大蕭條和優生學熱潮中搖擺的政治歷史。作者不回避種族、階級與性別交織的鬥爭，而是對阻礙女性生育自由的各種力量進行了全面的檢視。
充滿深刻見解，並生動刻畫了20世紀女性找回生育主權的歷史，《生育的主權: 女性的避孕革命》是一部對避孕革命運動的全面記錄。
作者介紹
史蒂芬妮·高頓（Stephanie Gorton）是《公民記者：S. S. 麥克盧爾、艾達·塔貝爾與重寫美國的雜誌》（Citizen Reporters: S. S. McClure, Ida Tarbell, and the Magazine that Rewrote America，2020）的作者，該書曾入圍斯佩伯新聞傳記獎（Sperber Prize for Journalism Biography）。她的作品曾發表於《紐約客》（The New Yorker）、《史密森尼》（Smithsonian）、《巴黎評論日報》（Paris Review Daily）等刊物。史蒂芬妮·高頓出生於黎巴嫩裔美國人家庭，目前居住在美國羅德島。
書評
“Stephanie Gorton recounts the complex, often infuriating, history of the movement to legalize birth control through the rivalry between its two greatest advocates. The Icon and the Idealist is a fascinating portrait of ambition and idealism, politics and passion, and a shocking reminder of just how far some men will go to keep women ignorant and powerless over their own bodies.” — Debby Applegate, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Madam: The Biography of Polly Adler, Icon of the Jazz Age
“The Icon and the Idealist is a shrewd and important work, brilliantly conceived and beautifully written. With rigorous reporting and brutal honestly, Stephanie Gorton excels in examining the bold ideas and messy work that shaped reproductive choice.” — Jonathan Eig, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of King: A Life and The Birth of the Pill
"There is no time like the present for Stephanie Gorton’s dual biography of the fiercely formidable women, Mary Ware Dennett and Margaret Sanger, who brought the fight for reproductive rights to the American public in the early twentieth century. Studded with dramatic scenes and supported by copious research on the multifaceted and ever-evolving campaign to legalize birth control, a term coined by Sanger, Gorton’s narrative humanizes and makes modern the high-stakes battle waged a century in the past, providing needed inspiration for today’s readers who seek to practice and uphold the human right to self-determination." — Megan Marshall, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Margaret Fuller: A New American Life, The Peabody Sisters, and Elizabeth Bishop: A Miracle for Breakfast
"What does it take to make a once-radical idea normal? The Icon and the Idealist is the captivating and substantive account of two singular women who did just that, Margaret Sanger and Mary Ware Dennett. Before them and the family planning movement, birth control was rare, unsafe and shameful. After them, millions of women had unprecedented possession over their own lives. This dual biography grippingly recounts a flash point in women’s—and human—liberation." — Alissa Quart, Author of Bootstrapped and Squeezed
“The Icon and the Idealist is an essential, and accessible, look at the U.S.'s fraught history of reproductive freedoms through the lives of two leaders as complex and nuanced as the topic itself.” — Rachel Somerstein, author of Invisible Labor
"The Icon and the Idealist is a shrewd and deeply researched dual biography, one that compares and contrasts two legendary (and maddeningly complex) 20th century feminist figures, Margaret Sanger and Mary Dennett, in ways that shed new light on their individual and dual accomplishments and conflicts. It's also, like the best of cultural histories, all too necessary at a time when women's bodily autonomy is under new and renewed threats." — Sarah Weinman, author of The Real Lolita and Scoundrel
“Drawing on considerable archival sources, journalist Gorton creates an informative history of the fight for women’s reproductive rights in [this] dual biography. . . . A timely contribution to a virulent debate.” — Kirkus Reviews
"An essential read. . . . Through her subjects' own extensive writings, Gorton captures each woman's distinct voice and personality . . . [creating] a rich text that both illustrates how far women’s rights have come and highlights their tenuous state today." — Booklist
“Stephanie Gorton deftly writes the rivalry between Margaret Sanger and Mary Dennett, drawing out each activist’s political approach to reproductive rights. This history is not only relevant to the fight for contraceptive access and bodily autonomy playing out today, it also resonates as the book wrestles with the contradictions of activism, the shortcomings of political leaders, and how our idealism persists despite those challenges." — New Republic, “10 Best Books of Fall”
“Brilliant . . . . Gorton, in a fine-grained and propulsive examination of the rivals’ careers, depicts their antagonism as foundational to modern feminism. . . . By turns analytical and dishy . . . this captivates.” — Publishers Weekly (starred review)
“Timely and well-researched . . . . One of the most valuable takeaways from Gorton’s book is how it complicates the usual dichotomies of movement leadership: the insider versus the outsider, the institutionalist versus the radical.” — New Yorker
“A compelling dual biography that has striking parallels to the contemporary abortion debate.” — BookPage (starred review)
相關連結