The Threat of Demographic Winter : A Transnational Politics of Motherhood and Endangered Populations in Pro-Family Documentaries

Abstract

The article examines a set of documentaries that serves to promulgate a depopulation crisis narrative and heteronormative "natural family" solution for the World Congress of Families, a transnational network of primarily conservative Christian organizations engaged in "pro-family" politics. These videos provide a portable delivery system of rationales for preserving sexual norms aimed at countering claims for the sexual and reproductive rights of women and sexual minorities. The films, revolving around a theme of "demographic winter," warn of the collapse of social-security systems and ultimately the end of so-called Western civilization. The documentaries locate the problem principally in women's individual marriage and childbearing decisions and blame environmentalist, feminist, and LGBT-rights movements for spreading misinformation that fuels what the films declare to be problematic choices. The article argues that these documentaries employ a politics of fear in an attempt to secure social norms based on a set of gender and racial hierarchies. They mobilize fear of economic, moral, racial, and sexual chaos positioned against a "familiar" model of home, motherhood, and safety. The analysis highlights how emotional and demographic elements combine to shape an argument for patriarchy that resonates with a variety of global anxieties and political goals.