Subversive Motherhoods

First goal, THE BOOK, done!

Strech goal: THE DOCUMENTARY FILM

We need 7.500 euros as a strech goal in order to fund the documentary film. If we make it, all the people who have contributed to the project will have the chance of seeing the documentary film online. Let´s go!!!

THE BOOK

I have been working on pro-sex feminisms, post-pornography and subversive motherhoods for years and have always had the intuition that motherhood has a subversive and revolutionary power. Six months ago my baby, Roc, was born, after two miscarriages, at home, with lots of love and passion. Now I feel it is the time to carry out this project in the shape of a book of interviews.

The topics I would like to deal with in the 13 interviews I intend to carry out are:

• Orgasmic childbirth, a term I came across during my Reading of the texts by Casilda Rodrigáñez and in which I fully immersed myself in Montreal, during the Artivistic festival, in the course of a workshop called Orgasmic Birth organized by Nicole Pino. There is a documentary produced in the US on the subject with the same name, as well as a book also with the same title published by Rodale. It is my intention to interview several women who have gone through this experience themselves. Those I have the pleasure and honour of knowing live in Barcelona and London.

• Breastfeeding as a sexual act. Breastfeeding has the potential to be a highly pleasurable experience. In fact, some women even experience orgasms during breastfeeding. The taboo in this context is as powerful as the orgasms themselves. Also the topic of breastfeeding and censorship.

• Breastfeeding and censorship. The work of visual artist Ana Alvarez-Errecalde.

• Motherhood and economy, or how women should earn a salary for gestating, giving birth and raising children. Such is the view of activist Alicia Murillo.

• Multiple Fatherhood. There are numerous cultures which consider that a child has several fathers. In fact, the concept of multiple fatherhood is based on the belief that, in order for a pregnancy to be successful, the semen of many men is needed and that they all contribute to the richness of the child to come.

• Transsexual motherhood. To talk exclusively of women when talking about gestation is both erroneous and discriminatory, since both men and women can have a uterus. A person may well have been born with a pussy but then have gone through a transition between his/her assigned female identity to a new male assignment. A surgical operation may or may not be performed, choosing to keep his/her genitalia, that is, his/her pussy. Thus, both a man and a woman may give birth.

• The work of doulas, people who assist in pregnancy, childbirth and the puerperal period. The work of Liliana Lammers and Michel Odent is pioneering and revolutionary in this sense. In fact, they were the first to introduce this figure in Europe.

• The representation of motherhood in pornography and post-pornography. From the porno-documentary Pregnant with Desire, by pro-sex feminist Madison Young to the performances and workshops of Sadie Lune (multidisciplinary artist and sex worker from San Francisco living in Berlin) and the French writer and actress Wendy Delorme. These latter recently carried out a workshop in Paris on sexuality during and after pregnancy.

• Monogamy as a factor of sub-fertility or the possibility that the imposition of monogamous relations be a handicap for the fertility of our uteruses. I would like to discuss this topic with Erika Irusta, creator of El Camino Rubí, a project on self-knowledge of the menstrual cycle in women.

• GENDER QUEER PARENTING. Our goal is to raise children who are able to paint their lives using a full colour palette and giving them the tools needed to navigate a misogynist culture. By queer artist Del LaGrace Volcano.

• Motherhood in matriarchal and matrifocal societies. The Mosuo in China, a society where the words "uncle" and "father" are the same, and the Minangkabau in Sumatra.

• Parthenogenesis, from the perspective of American doctor Marguerite Rigoglioso, whom I had the pleasure of meeting in London. She studies how Greek women-goddesses, after years of preparation, were able to become pregnant without any male contribution, in rituals of sacred meditation. This is true self-management of the body and the rest is nonsense.

• Feminism, trans-feminism and motherhood, or how new feminisms integrate (and disintegrate) motherhood in their discourse. Feminist activist Helen Torres has a powerful discourse on that subject as well as a work on post-pornography (Alien Baby) which questions the sexual dimension of the mother-child relationship.

The book will be in english / spanish.

Illustration of the book A Feminist Critique of Marx, by Silvia Federici.

WHAT YOUR CONTRIBUTION MAKES POSSIBLE

• First of all, the travel expenses in order to carry out the interviews, as well as other expenses.

• Babysitter! This is a requirement for the fulfilment of this project which is new in my life, but it is a reality that presents itself suddenly and without compassion. A tribe is needed to raise a child... and in this society nothing helps find a balance between raising a child and carrying out our everyday life, so babysitting expenses will take a good chunk of the budget.

• Illustrations and photographs that will be part of the book (including the illustration by Joan Turu which introduces the project).

• Editing expenses, which include printing, correcting and layout. We will have a self-published edition limited to the number of copies sold, or a larger one, with an alternative publishing house. Shipping costs.

• To the Verkami team, which make all of this happen. Also, revenue and Paypal expenses.

Photograph by Meg Allen for Masculinity is a Trait, Not a Gender.

ON THE REWARDS

• Your name on the Thank-you section. Each contribution to the project is crucial to its realization and is thus a part of it. Your name for Posterity and my gratitude always.

• The book of Subversive Motherhoods, the star prize and final aim of this project.

• The book El postporno era eso, by María Llopis, published by Melusina in 2010. The book is a subjective and personal view of the post-porn movement in Barcelona, an autobiographical work on my diatribes between feminism, pornography and activist art.

• Doula sessions.

The work of doulas consists in assisting during each of the phases of motherhood. It is an accompaniment to pregnancy, childbirth and the puerperal period. I was trained in London, at the Paramana Doula UK school, by Michel Odent and Liliana Lammers.

Each session will last 50 minutes, online via Skype. But there is also the possibility of carrying them out in-person if you can schedule the sessions in Benicàssim or Barcelona.

For more information, visit:
Paramana Doula Uk

• Goddess Oracle session.

This reward is inspired on the work of Marguerite Rigoglioso and that of the doula who accompanied me during my pregnancy, childbirth and puerperal period, Ana Claramonte. It is a free, personal and playful interpretation of Amy Marashinsky’s Goddess Oracle.

• Workshops of Subversive Motherhoods.

I have been offering workshops on post-pornography and pro-sex feminism for years and, more recently, on subversive motherhoods as well. I conducted the first workshop on this latter subject in May 2013 in Valencia, when I was five months into my pregnancy. The workshop took place at La Mandrágora social centre, with the contribution of Rous Hernández. Travel and other expenses are not included. The Price offered in this pack is a special offer (half price) on the occasion of the publication of the book.

DATES

I would like to carry out thirteen interviews, two per week, so I shall need two and a half weeks to finish. Then there is all the editing work to be done, which will take approximately one month. My aim is for you to have the book in your hands by late summer or mid-autumn.

Of course, those rewards which can be presented immediately, such as online consultations, will be carried out as soon as a date is set.

FOR FURTHER RESEARCH ON SUBVERSIVE MOTHERHOODS

The archive on Subversive Motherhoods on Girlswholikeporno

The archive on Subversive Motherhoods on the blog Maria Llopis desnuda

At mariallopis.com

Hip Mama Magazine Cover º55, with a self-portrait by Barcelona-based artist Ana Alvarez-Errecalde.