The feebleminded and unfit should not have babies – American eugenics in K.D. Alden’s A Mother’s Promise

Abstract

ABSTRACT The concept of eugenics took an exclusionary and abusive turn in the first decades of the twentieth century, when prominent lawyers, scientists and first-wave feminists championed the cause. Indiana’s 1907 eugenicist ruling was adopted by thirty-two states, and consequently forced sterilizations were performed on whomever lawmakers considered unworthy of bearing children. The most notorious case of sterilization, Buck v. Bell, was performed on Carrie Buck, a victim of rape. K. D. Alden’s novel, A Mother’s Promise (2021), is a fictional rendering of the story, which depicts the fractures of American legal and social structures. By drawing Ruth-Ann Riley’s portrait, Buck’s fictional counterpart, it convincingly exposes America’s restrictive practices. This paper aims at exploring, through a feminist perspective, Riley’s struggle against overbearing eugenicist practices, performed by pseudo-scientists and lawyers who utilized eugenics to promote their professional and economic interests. Additionally, based on Foucault’s theory of power-knowledge relations, the paper demonstrates how, within this context, power and knowledge sustain each other. Finally, it relates the ethical issues concerning misogynistic practices and objectifying women’s bodies that were at stake one hundred years ago to twenty-first-century feminist discourse with respect to the #MeToo movement and the overturning of the Roe v. Wade decision.