Communication Studies, Department of

 

Document Type

Article

Date of this Version

6-2014

Citation

Published in Women’s Studies in Communication, 37:2 (2014), pp. 159–180 doi:10.1080/07491409.2014.909375

Comments

Copyright © 2014 The Organization for Research on Women and Communication. Used by permission.

Abstract

This article employs participant definitional analysis, sensitized with feminist poststructuralism and critical ethnography, to understand three identity construction processes that members of childfree LiveJournal communities participate in: (a) naming childfreedom, (b) negotiating childfreedom, and (c) enacting childfreedom. I argue that childfree identities are contested and sometimes activist. Ultimately, I call for scholars to reconsider the definition of childfree to account for the complex and nuanced identities constructed by individuals who identify as such.

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