Oh, no, im not infertile”: Culture, support groups, and the infertile identity
Abstract
Using in-depth interviews with forty subfecund women, I explore how sub-fecundity affects a woman’s sense of self. I examine the role that culture plays in the content of our identities, particularly in disrupted lives. I examine the role that culture, in particular the culture within a support group, plays in the content of infertile identities. I examine how some women come to see themselves as infertile while others do not, and how the women come to think about infertility in relation to the self. I employ theories of cultural sociology and identity to provide a framework for explaining the ways in which subfecund women draw on the cultures of support groups in reconstructing their selves in the face of subfecundity. © 2009, Taylor & Francis Group, LLC. All rights reserved.
Publication Title
Sociological Focus
Recommended Citation
Loftus, J. (2009). Oh, no, im not infertile”: Culture, support groups, and the infertile identity. Sociological Focus, 42 (4), 394-416. https://doi.org/10.1080/00380237.2009.10571364
