ABSTRACT
A few preliminaries. I am, amongst the contributors to this collection of essays, perhaps uniquely ill-qualified to address feminisms’ responses to reproduction. I cannot and do not speak from personal experience, nor do I have any handy experiences to share; although I realise that that begs a number of methodological questions. I am not a feminist, although I realise that that begs a number of definitional or conceptual questions which I address elsewhere. I am a white, heterosexual, middle-aged, male academic and thus, by definition, not systematically oppressed, other than by things of my own making. I do not have the presumption, then, to be able to identify with what it is ‘like’ to be oppressed, any more than I have the presumption to believe I can have a concept of possession which would be meaningful in any way. In this sense, then, I do not have any direct knowledge on which I could plausibly base a claim to say anything.
