UCLA

This article explores the role of aesthetics in the construction and perception of what constitutes healthy reproduction and reproductive practices. I draw on women's reproductive experiences and navigations within a racialized gendered hierarchy. Processes and procedures related to the governance and measurements of reproduction and reproductive health shape these navigations. Focusing on Black women's experiences, I analyze the ways in which values, sensibilities, and affect connected to particular appearances and arrangements influence reproductive decision-making, reproductive health, and family constructions - what I refer to as aesthetics politics.