I guess forced/coerced relationships is a running theme in her work, although I don't think it's restricted to reproduction. The underlying theme as I see it has basically been, "Human beings doing what they have to do to survive," however distasteful that might be. It's especially noticeable in Kindred, which has nothing to do with reproduction, and the "Patternist" books, where reproduction is only one of the things the characters have to do to survive (they also have to kill loved ones, enslave others, become the very thing they hate the most, etc). I see this as a consistent theme of oppression, not reproduction -- the fact that people who are in a powerless position end up doing a lot of horrible stuff (including breeding their own replacements) and dealing with a lot of horrible people, just to get by.
I think this theme is clearer in the Bloodchild collection. The title story "Bloodchild" is explicitly about reproduction, but the fact that the burden lies on men in this case (they have to incubate alien larvae... surprisingly non-squirm-inducing) makes it a bit clearer that Butler's not advocating forced women's sexuality as the solution to all of humanity' ills. =) And she explains the underlying theme of that story as "paying the rent". Basically the oppression theme again -- when you're in a powerless position, you do what you have to do to get by. The rent must be paid, even if it's paid in flesh and blood, and when you're truly powerless, that's often the only currency you have.
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Date: 2008-06-22 04:25 pm (UTC)I think this theme is clearer in the Bloodchild collection. The title story "Bloodchild" is explicitly about reproduction, but the fact that the burden lies on men in this case (they have to incubate alien larvae... surprisingly non-squirm-inducing) makes it a bit clearer that Butler's not advocating forced women's sexuality as the solution to all of humanity' ills. =) And she explains the underlying theme of that story as "paying the rent". Basically the oppression theme again -- when you're in a powerless position, you do what you have to do to get by. The rent must be paid, even if it's paid in flesh and blood, and when you're truly powerless, that's often the only currency you have.