ABSTRACT
This chapter considers how normative reproduction interpellates both gendered subjects and a state system that reflects this patriarchal ordering, and leads to a construction of threat that plays out across women's bodies. It shows how repronormativity structures the state, society, and the perception of domestic and international threat. Repronormativity divides societies into desirable and undesirable reproducers, those who are encouraged or discouraged from procreating. The chapter is concerned with key feminist theories in understanding the gendered and hetero-sexed concepts in reproduction, and highlights the construction of procreative gender roles as foundational to patriarchal society. It examines the connections between birth and belonging, and identifies the important distinctions between the 'nation' and the 'state'. The case studies provide examples of how laws limit reproduction to only certain citizens, showing that far more than simply recreating the next generation of humans, reproduction is sociobiological: patriarchal values are recreated and reified when reproduction is limited to heterosexual sex acts.
