Alison Piepmeier Livres

What prenatal tests and down syndrome reveal about our reproductive choices When Alison Piepmeier--scholar of feminism and disability studies, and mother of Maybelle, an eight-year-old girl with Down syndrome--died of cancer in August 2016, she left behind an important unfinished manuscript about motherhood, prenatal testing, and disability. In Unexpected, George Estreich and Rachel Adams pick up where she left off, honoring the important research of their friend and colleague, as well as adding new perspectives to her work. Based on interviews with parents of children with Down syndrome, as well as women who terminated their pregnancies because their fetus was identified as having the condition, Unexpected paints an intimate, nuanced picture of reproductive choice in today's world. Piepmeier takes us inside her own daughter's life, showing how Down syndrome is misunderstood, stigmatized, and condemned, particularly in the context of prenatal testing. At a time when medical technology is rapidly advancing, Unexpected provides a much-needed perspective on our complex, and frequently troubling, understanding of Down syndrome.

Focusing on women's bodies as a means of public self-construction, Alison Piepmeier challenges traditional representations of 19th-century womanhood, such as the corseted white middle-class female and the black slave stereotypes. She moves beyond conventional binaries like public/private and victim/agent, presenting women's public embodiment as complex and dynamic. Through this lens, the book explores how women navigate and contest societal expectations, highlighting their strategic and playful engagement with their identities in public spaces.

With names like The East Village Inky, Mend My Dress, Dear Stepdad, and I'm So Fucking Beautiful, zines created by girls and women make feminism's third wave visible. This book argues that these quirky, personalized booklets are tangible examples of the ways that girls and women 'do' feminism.