Non-heteronormative Families and Dissident Parenting in the Semi-peripheries

A fair amount of research focuses on contemporary family formation practices, fertility trends and intimate relationships. However, a notable part of this research is explicitly or implicitly heteronormative. Heteronormativity, re/producing dominance of certain forms of heterosexuality (Warner, 1993), sets various forms of non-heterosexualities (including homosexualities) as peripheral, marginal, undesired and/or unhealthy. It automatically presupposes couple-relationship, preferably marriage as a procreative unit, with the assumption of two, distinct, complementary, “natural” genders, while creating social pressure on potentially everyone non-conforming to this norm, such as single straights, childless and childfree couples, people in polyamorous relationships, and couples with non-stereotypical gender roles (including stay-at-home fathers as well as BDSM relationships). On the one hand, traditional ties are weakening, and intimate relationships become increasingly a matter of individual choice and negotiation. There are visible efforts to normalize and de-stigmatize the choice of leading a childfree life (at least in certain parts of Europe), especially among straight people. The degendering of parenting promoted by single-parent and LGTBQIA+ families reshaped the family and, in particular, the male gender roles, allowing the creation of alternative models (Brinamen & Mitchell, 2008), with regard to the most varied ways of obtaining this descent. This dissident parenting reconfiguration (Do Carmo, 2020) promoted by people who, historically, occupied places on the sidelines and were not represented by the rules, resulted in new opportunities and models also for non-marginalized people (Benson et al., 2005). However, LGBTQIA+ activism pleads for social and legal recognition of same-sex couples, parental intentions of LGBTQIA+ people, homoparental, and queer families, discursively created a new normativity: the homonormativity of long-term couple relationships with the intentions and subsequent realization of parenting. While the former trend counteracts the procreative normativity of straight couples, the latter can open the door to transcend non-heteronormative procreation and/or critically re-examine the emergence of privatized, depoliticized homonormative cultures, “anchored in domesticity and consumption” (Duggan 2003:50). On the other hand, throughout the 20th and 21st centuries, these transformations combined with the massive entry of women into the labour market, the growth of single-parent families, and demographic changes such as population aging generate pressure on welfare regimes, especially in the semi-peripheries, including Latin America, Southern Europe and the post-socialist countries. The heteronormatively inspired family model structure family policies, including those related to the care of dependent people. In familist cultures care is considered a social risk to be handled mainly by the family, and mainly female carers within the family. Thus, in many places the increasing participation of women in the labour market that was not accompanied, to the same extent, by an increased participation of men in domestic care activities led to a care crisis. Although much progress has been made in academic production on the care crisis, there are still several gaps to be addressed, including the caring masculinities and dissident parenting in the semi-peripheries. This section welcomes panels that discuss theoretical considerations and empirical findings on: - non-heteronormative straight models of families, including singles, childless couples, - families characterized by non-stereotypical gender roles division (incl. BDSM relationships), polyamorous family constellations, etc.; - role of assisted reproduction technologies in couple relationships and procreation; - efforts to re-traditionalize and counteract the changes in intimate relationships, parenting and family constitution; - non-heteronormative parenting intentions and strategies, including trans* parenting, homonormativity of LGBT+ activism, etc; - paternity/parental leave as a right for dissidents by normative citizenship dictates; - caring masculinities, and the extension of the right to dissident parenting and their contemporary family arrangements. Panels and papers are welcome that focus on: - discursive, institutional, everyday-life or identity aspects; - regional specifics as well as international comparisons; - intersections of family or parenting, sexuality/gender identities with other social categories as age, ethnicity, class, (dis)ability, etc; - experiences and public policies on paternity/parental leaves for dissident parenting.