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Articles by Gretchen Sisson
What is a Maternity Home and What Role do They Play Post-Dobbs?
By Gretchen Sisson, author of Relinquished: The Politics of Adoption and the Privilege of American Motherhood. Are maternity homes back? Reporters have been asking this question long before the Dobbs decision — from the Associated Press proclaiming a “new beginning” for maternity homes nationwide, to The Washington Post’s glowing coverage of Texas “maternity ranches,” to The New York Times’ critical look at the “oppressive sanctuary” of Florida maternity homes.
An author separates the fiction of orphanhood from the reality
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Our 51 Favorite Books of 2024
The Counterfeit Countess: The Jewish Woman Who Rescued Thousands of Poles During the Holocaust by Elizabeth B. White and Joanna Sliwa (Simon & Schuster). Reviewed by Kitty Kelley. “The authors are unsparing in describing the unrelenting and unrelieved miseries inflicted by the Nazis in decimating the Jewish population of Poland, which had the largest concentration of Jews in Europe in 1939 — 3.5 million then, fewer than 20,000 today.
Relinquished: The Politics of Adoption and the Privilege of American Motherhood
Infertile? Same-sex couple? Evangelical Christian? Zero-population-growth proponent? Too often, the “simple” solution if you fall into one of these categories but want a child is: You can always adopt. But where, exactly, do those babies come from? Typically, they are not, as the popular myth would have it, orphans. They have living mothers and fathers. So, why is it that some mothers give up their children to complete strangers?
Adoption's warm, fuzzy reputation doesn't hold up to reality
Adoption's warm, fuzzy reputation doesn't hold up to reality After the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022, sociologist Gretchen Sisson found herself struggling to answer common questions about contemporary adoption. Journalists wanted to know: Why won't more people give up their babies when faced with unwanted pregnancy? After all, adoption is a beloved institution and a rare point of bipartisan agreement.
A Nuanced Adoption Reading List
Sometimes I read books that are so perfectly connected that I marvel at their ties. And then I realize that it was no coincidence that I picked them up in the order that I did, and that instead, the theme drove my reading for a period of time. Today’s newsletter is about one of those themes. I read all of these books in November 2023 - February 2024.
How Online Adoption Ads Prey on Pregnant People
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How Online Adoption Ads Prey on Pregnant People
Ideas March 2, 2024 7:00 AM EST Sisson, Ph.D., is a qualitative sociologist studying abortion and adoption at Advancing New Standards in Reproductive Health (ANSIRH) in the Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology, and Reproductive Sciences at University of California, San Francisco. Her book RELINQUISHED: The Politics of Adoption and the Privilege of American Motherhood is available from St. Martin's Press.
Adoption, Abortion, Autonomy: On the Literature of Reproductive Rights
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Adoption, Abortion, Autonomy: On the Literature of Reproductive Rights
I began my research for Relinquished: The Politics of Adoption and the Privilege of American Motherhood in 2010, I was a doctoral student who had little suspicion that my research would turn into a book at all, and even less that—by the time I did, fourteen years later—the entire context of reproductive politics in the United States would have been upended with the overturning of Roe v. Wade.
So Where Do We Go from Here? on Apple Podcasts
Abortion bans, voter suppression, criminalization…the list of things standing between us and true reproductive justice can feel endless. So where do we go from here? What will success look like? (No, it’s not begging for Roe’s return!) In the season finale, Renee and Regina talk about what they’ve learned from this season’s guests, ideas about how to get involved, and give us all hope for the future—and listeners share ways to care for one another as we find freedom. Because: we will find freedom.
Why Is the History of Adoption So Complicated?
In this exclusive excerpt from RELINQUISHED, sociologist Gretchen Sisson explains how the historical traumas of family separation have shaped contemporary adoption in the U.S. This article was made possible because of the generous support of DAME members. We urgently need your help to keep publishing. Will you contribute just $5 a month to support our journalism?
Relinquished: The Politics of Adoption and the Privilege of American Motherhood
(Author) FORMAT Buy new or used from an indie through our partner Biblio: Price Condition Seller Bookshop.org has the highest-rated customer service of any bookstore in the world Description "Essential reading." --NPR "Books We Love" "Dares to imagine a different world where Americans treat adoption like the justice issue it is." ― Washington Post "Impressively reported...[Sisson] uses her deep well of knowledge to make the case that adoption is no solution for Americans' reduced access to...
When I Was Your Age: Life Lessons, Funny Stories & Questionable Parenting Advice from a Professional Clown
Kenan Thompson, with Dibs Baer. Harper, $29.99 (240p) ISBN 978-0-06-334806-6 Saturday Night Live actor Thompson reflects on his family life and storied career in this rib-tickling debut memoir-in-essays. He begins with his childhood in Georgia, attributing to his tight-knit family his own eventual status as a “softie” dad to his two young daughters.
A Map of Future Ruins: On Borders and Belonging
A Map of Future Ruins: On Borders and Belonging Journalist Markham (The Far Away Brothers) blends memoir, history, and reportage in a wide-ranging and unflinching account of Moria, an overcrowded refugee camp on the Greek island of Lesbos that burned to the ground in September 2020.
Imagination: A Manifesto
Ruha Benjamin. Norton, $22 (192p) ISBN 978-1-324-02097-4 Benjamin (Viral Justice) posits in this wide-ranging treatise that “collective imagination” will be a key force behind the creation of an emerging new social order.
The Dreadful History and Judgement of God on Thomas Müntzer: The Life and Times of an Early German Revolutionary
Andrew Drummond. Verso, $34.95 (384p) ISBN 978-1-839-76894-1 Historian Drummond (A Quite Impossible Proposal) offers an expansive biography of Thomas Müntzer (1489–1525), a radical figure of the German Reformation whom Martin Luther once called “Satan, a ravening wolf, and a false prophet.” Though Müntzer is generally seen as a marginal character, Drummond paints him as the protagonist of an even more extreme revolution within the Reformation.
The Shortest History of Sex: Two Billion Years of Procreation and Recreation
David Baker. The Experiment, $16.95 trade paper (336p) ISBN 978-1-891-01134-4 In this amusing romp, science historian Baker (The Shortest History of the Universe) uses sex-themed irreverence to lure casual readers into learning about the evolution of Homo sapiens from early rudimentary organisms into modern humans.
Why We Remember: Unlocking Memory’s Power to Hold On to What Matters
Charan Ranganath. Doubleday, $30 (304p) ISBN 978-0-385-54863-2 Ranganath, a psychology professor at the University of California Davis, debuts with a riveting overview of how memory works. He explains that the prefrontal cortex helps coordinate brain activity and direct attention, influencing what details are remembered or forgotten, and that the hippocampus enables recall by reactivating the neuronal connections that were active at the moment a memory formed.
Otter Country: An Unexpected Adventure in the Natural World
Miriam Darlington. Tin House, $27.95 (368p) ISBN 978-1-959030-34-8 Darlington (The Wise Hours) burnishes her reputation as a gifted nature writer with this vivid examination of the behavior, biology, and evolution of otters. She notes that the aquatic animals were “one of the earliest mammalian carnivores,” appearing 30 million years ago as members of the mustelid family, which includes weasels and badgers.
Dinner on Monster Island: Essays
In this poignant memoir-in-essays, De Rozario (And the Walls Come Crumbling Down) intertwines stories about growing up queer and brown in Singapore with her analysis of her favorite horror films. “It took me years to realize that perhaps the reason I love horror is the fact that when I was twelve years old, I was subjected to it,” she writes, recounting how her mother, who viewed De Rozario’s boyish behavior as deviant, enlisted church friends to “gay-exorcise” her daughter.
Our Ancient Faith: Lincoln, Democracy, and the American Experiment
Allen C. Guelzo. Knopf, $30 (272p) ISBN 978-0-593-53444-1 Historian Guelzo (Robert E. Lee) plumbs the depths of Abraham Lincoln’s passion for American democracy in this combative study that seeks to silence the institution’s “cultured despisers” by illuminating the president’s eloquent defense of it (he called democracy his “ancient faith”).
Strong Passions: A Scandalous Divorce in Old New York
Strong Passions: A Scandalous Divorce in Old New York Historian Weisberg (Talking to the Dead) digs through newspaper archives and legal libraries to deliver this captivating chronicle of a high-society scandal that riveted the nation during the final years of the Civil War. In a highly emotional state after the death of their third child in 1862, New York City socialite Mary Strong confessed to her husband, Peter, that she’d been having an affair with his brother.
The Secret History of Bigfoot: Field Notes on a North American Monster
John O’Connor. Sourcebooks, $26.99 (304p) ISBN 978-1-4642-1663-3 What does it mean that so many Americans believe a large ape-like creature roams the country’s forests? Journalist O’Connor attempts to answer this question in an amusing and thoughtful debut that focuses on “bigfooters” as much as on the legendary beast itself.
The Freaks Came Out to Write: The Definitive History of the ‘Village Voice,’ the Radical Paper That Changed American Culture by Tricia Romano
Tricia Romano. PublicAffairs, $35 (608p) ISBN 978-1-5417-3639-9 Former Village Voice nightlife columnist Romano debuts with a phenomenal oral history of the alternative weekly from its founding in 1955 through the 2018 shutdown of editorial operations. Drawing on more than 200 interviews with Voice personnel, Romano explores the many vibrant personalities, colorful stories, and heated disputes that defined the publication.
The MAGA Diaries: My Surreal Adventures Inside the Right-Wing (and How I Got Out)
Tina Nguyen. One Signal, $28 (272p) ISBN 978-1-9821-8969-3 A journalist revisits her youthful dalliance with and later disaffection from the conservative movement in this entertaining and insightful debut.
‘I could see myself doing something like that’: US women’s engagement with characters who experience abortion, adoption and surrogacy on Little Fires Everywhere
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Why Adoption Isn't an Alternative to Abortion on Apple Podcasts
A birth mom says that she doesn’t regret having an abortion—but placing a child for adoption left her traumatized. Plus, an adoptee shares her abortion story, and a researcher clears up some myths about adoption.
How Television Can (De)Stigmatize Abortion
In a January 2013 episode of Parenthood, one of the characters, Amy, goes to a Planned Parenthood clinic to have an abortion. Like the majority of (fictional) abortions shown on television, the procedure takes place in a medical setting. In a study of American television shows between 2005 and 2014, sociologists Gretchen Sisson and Katrina Kimport found fifty-two plotlines featuring abortion, with a majority of them happening on drama shows.
Gretchen's List: May 2022
Dear Friends, This one is going to be quick. I had written an entirely different draft for May, but you all are going to get it in June instead because, of course, this happened. Though unofficial, this decision isn’t a surprise — which didn’t stop me from literally bursting into tears upon reading it (and I’m not a crier). I am lucky in that the work that I am doing is exactly the work that I feel compelled to do in this moment, and that I have the company of so many of you in that work.
Forced Pregnancies
Amy Coney Barrett, Associate Justice of the Supreme Court Justice’s recent comments about adoption during oral arguments on Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization set off a firestorm of responses and op-eds. Some focused on the irony of the American Right invoking “My body, my choice” regarding Covid vaccines and mask mandates. More outrage, however, was directed at adoption seeming to be presented as an easy or less painful “fix” for an unintended pregnancy than abortion.
What We Get Wrong About Adoption
Activists and political leaders promote adoption as a social good, looking past the complex experiences of adoptees and the parents who relinquish them. By Gretchen Sisson and Jessica M. Harrison December 7, 2021 fb tw mail Print msg wa sms Bookmark December 7, 2021 Today, most women who relinquish infants for private adoption report wanting to parent, but are lacking the support and financial resources to do so.
Barrett is wrong: Adoption doesn't 'take care of' the burden of motherhood
Placeholder while article actions load During Wednesday's oral arguments in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization, the Supreme Court heard a direct challenge to Roe v. Wade. Through her questioning, Justice Amy Coney Barrett pursued a line of inquiry premised on the ability of women to relinquish their infants for adoption soon after childbirth. "It doesn't seem to me to follow that pregnancy and then parenthood are all part of the same burden," said Barrett.
Prime‐time abortion on Grey's Anatomy: What do US viewers learn from fictional portrayals of abortion on television?
ARTICLE Gretchen Sisson, Corresponding Author Gretchen Sisson gretchen.sisson@ucsf.edu Advancing New Standards in Reproductive Health (ANSIRH), University of California, San Francisco, California, USA Correspondence Gretchen Sisson, Advancing New Standards in Reproductive Health (ANSIRH), University of California, San Francisco, CA, USA.
Napoleon: A Life Told in Gardens and Shadows
Historian Scurr (Fatal Purity: Robespierre and the French Revolution) spotlights Napoleon Bonaparte’s lifelong preoccupation with gardens and gardening in this unusual and perceptive biography. She takes note of the plot of land at boarding school that Napoleon turned into a private retreat, and describes how a doomed mulberry nursery, intended to be partially funded by the government, nearly bankrupted his family after his father’s death and fueled his own frustration with the monarchy.
Hollywood Still Can't Get Abortion Right
By Stephanie Herold and Gretchen Sisson/The Conversation According to decades of research, abortion is an incredibly common and safe medical procedure. But if you learned about abortion only from movies and TV, that's not the story you'd see. For the last eight years, we've been studying onscreen depictions of abortion. We've found that Hollywood tends to dramatically exaggerate the medical risks associated with abortion while downplaying real barriers to access.
In 2020, TV and film still couldn’t get abortion right
According to decades of research, abortion is an incredibly common and safe medical procedure. But if you learned about abortion only from movies and TV, that’s not the story you’d see. For the last eight years, we’ve been studying onscreen depictions of abortion. We’ve found that Hollywood tends to dramatically exaggerate the medical risks associated with abortion while downplaying real barriers to access.
Stephanie Herold and Gretchen Sisson
Hollywood continues to dramatically exaggerate the medical risks associated with abortion while downplaying barriers to access.
In 2020, TV and film still couldn't get abortion right
In 2020, TV and film still couldn't get abortion right (The Conversation is an independent and nonprofit source of news, analysis and commentary from academic experts.) Stephanie Herold, University of California, San Francisco and Gretchen Sisson, University of California, San Francisco (THE CONVERSATION) According to decades of research, abortion is an incredibly common and safe medical procedure. But if you learned about abortion only from movies and TV, that’s not the story you’d see.
“I can’t believe your mixed ass wasn’t on the pill!”: race and abortion on American scripted television, 2008-2019
ABSTRACT Racial identities provide important context for understanding reproductive experiences, including abortion. However, this context is often not fully reflected in popular cultural narratives about abortion, including on American television. Because onscreen depictions have the potential to influence public understandings of abortion, it is crucial to examine the messages these plotlines convey about the relationship between race, racism, and abortion access.
Abortion on American television: An update on recent portrayals, 2015-2019
Abstract Objective To compare differences in televised abortion depictions from two time periods: 2005 to 2014, as examined in previous studies, and more recent depictions from 2015 to 2019. Study design Using a database of television abortion plotlines, we analyzed recent portrayals for character demographics, barriers, genre, and safety, calculated proportions, and compared to prior findings.
What Does It Mean to Be a Modern-Day Trophy Wife?
Illustration by Evah Fan Both feminists and antifeminists dismiss and deride the trophy wife, but this week's Longform Friday examines society’s role in creating her and asks: Can the trophy wife be something different altogether? Happy reading! —Evette Dionne, editor in chief This article was originally published in the 2012 Summer issue, Fame + Fortune.
Gretchen's List: Election Day Game Plan
Dear Friends, We’ve made it. My secondary goal for Election Day was to truly feel that I had done everything I could do to defeat Donald Trump and his enablers, while working towards a more progressive future. I believe I’ve accomplished that. My primary goal, of course, is to win. If you’re still trying to figure out your time and headspace over the next 48 hours and need some ideas, here are mine: Prepare yourself for an extended period of ambiguity.
Gretchen's List: "May her memory be a revolution"
Dear Friends, We have lost our inimitable, inspirational Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. I am feeling the sadness of this loss acutely, with anger hovering around the edges at the looming battles to come. For the moment, though, I will let that anger wait. Take a moment to grieve, to catch your breath, to feel anxious, to refocus. The loss of Justice Ginsburg is a loss for our country, and for her dream of what it could be.
The Best American Travel Writing 2020
Macfarlane opens this provocative but unfortunately timed entry in the long-running series with a sobering message: “I write from a world in which travel has stopped.” Indeed, readers may feel a jarring sense of dissonance delving into suddenly anachronistic essays on unfettered travel, though they often are framed with still-relevant political conscience. Kyle Chayka probes what it means to have an “authentic” experience in Iceland, where tourists outnumbered inhabitants.
Why the Dollhouse Metaphor Remains So Indelible
Eliza Scanlen as Amma, left, and Amy Adams as Camille in Sharp Objects (Photo credit: HBO) The scene: “A room furnished comfortably and tastefully, but not extravagantly,” complete with armchairs and a small sofa arranged beneath the window, a piano beside the door to the study, a small bookcase with “well-bound” books, and a fire burning brightly in the stove.
The Abortion Storyline In 'The Letdown' Season 2 Is Different â Weâve Studied Them All
TV shows about new motherhood are having a renaissance. From Workinâ Moms to SMILF to Iâm Sorry, thereâs no shortage of content on the exhaustion and elation that accompany early parenthood. Like these comedies, Australiaâs The Letdown, available to U.S. audiences on Netflix, follows Audrey (played by Alison Bell, who also writes for and produces the show) as she acclimates to motherhood surrounded by a group of equal parts judgmental and supportive peers.
Hangers, Potions, and Pills: Abortion Procedures on American Television, 2008 to 2018
To view the full text, please login as a subscribed user or purchase a subscription. Click here to view the full text on ScienceDirect. Abstract Background Television portrayals of medical procedures may contribute to patient anxieties and cultural myths. We explored how television depicts abortion procedures, focusing on what these portrayals communicate about abortion access and safety.
“The stakes are so high”: interviews with progressive journalists reporting on abortion
To view the full text, please login as a subscribed user or purchase a subscription. Click here to view the full text on ScienceDirect. Abstract Objectives Because news frames can influence public and policy agendas, proponents of abortion access should be concerned with how this issue is covered in the news.
Doctors and Witches, Conscience and Violence: Abortion Provision on American Television
Abstract CONTEXT Popular entertainment may reflect and produce—as well as potentially contest—stigma regarding abortion provision. Knowledge of how providers are portrayed on‐screen is needed to improve understanding of how depictions may contribute to the stigmatization of real providers. METHODS All abortion provision plotlines on American television from 2005 to 2014 were identified through Internet searches.
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