“We’re Not All Anti-Choices”: How Controlling Images Shape Latina/x Feminist Abortion Advocacy

Abstract

Reproductive politics and Latinxs’ politics demonstrate a preoccupation with representations and discourses across time and space. Intersectional feminists theorize how controlling images function as mechanisms of social control by distorting holistic perceptions of marginalized people. While social movement research documents the importance of culture in collective action, little research applies a controlling images interpretive framework to social movement contexts. An important case for examining Latina/x representations is the ideological terrain created by pro-abortion Latina/x feminist advocates. Utilizing a three-year ethnography with California Latinas for Reproductive Justice (CLRJ), written materials produced by the organization, and in-depth interviews with staff, I argue that CLRJ highlights the limitations of existing research, uses feminist approaches to dialogue, and creates structural analyses of inequalities to challenge la santa (the saint), a controlling image centering cisgender mestiza and white Latinas used to assume that all Latinas make poor advocates for reproductive autonomy.

Abortion as a sociological case

“…Abortion is a rich case for examining the operation of race within movement coalitions, 57 including how activists from different racial backgrounds negotiate and produce a shared "women of color" identity 58 and how controlling images of specific racial groups dictate opportunities for advocacy-and how such images are contested. 59…”

“…The reproductive justice movement calls for the right to bear children, to not bear children, and to raise children in safe and sustainable communities, 53 thereby bridging abortion activism with claims about racial and environmental justice, police brutality, and maternal mortality, among other issues. Abortion is a rich case for examining the operation of race within movement coalitions, 57 including how activists from different racial backgrounds negotiate and produce a shared “women of color” identity 58 and how controlling images of specific racial groups dictate opportunities for advocacy—and how such images are contested 59 …”

When Black Movements Matter: Controlling Images and Black Lives Matter Protests in Media Attention to U.S. Police Killings

“…Controlling images challenge movement leaders from marginalized backgrounds by shaping the extent their claims become resonant and newsworthy to journalists along dimensions of empirical credibility, experiential commensurability, and narrative fidelity (Snow and Benford 1988). Cultural resonance depends on whether marginalized communities can successfully overcome controlling images imposed on their social positions (García 2022;Kubal 1998).…”

“…Controlling images influence strategies and outcomes of ethnoracial minority movements (Cole 2006;García 2022;Patler 2018). Historically, U.S.…”

“…Controlling images factor into media attention to Black individuals killed by police. While previous operationalizations typically analyze in qualitative studies narratives that reflect or challenge racialized and gendered tropes (Collins 1999;Dow 2016;García 2022), the armed status of victims represents a quantitative measure that captures perceived victim worthiness. Public discourse on police-related deaths relies on the purported public threat that individuals pose to law enforcement, particularly around possession of a weapon, to justify or criticize police brutality cases (Freelon, McIlwain, and Clark 2016;Hirschfield and Simon 2010).…”