Reproductive Rights and Oppression in Marge Piercy's Utopia

Abstract

Since the 1900s, patriarchal societies have controlled reproductive rights and even imposed racial segregation to assert power and dominance over marginalized bodies, primarily through discriminatory legislation that eliminates the freedom of choice of those affected. However, in a world that ensures marginalized groups's autonomy, by eradicating women's subjugation and racial prejudice, one can find themselves in a utopia. This paper explores the ways in which Thomas More's Utopia (1516), Charlotte Perkins Gilman's Herland (1915) and Marge Piercy's Woman on the Edge of Time (1976) present different utopias favouring women and the marginalized sector's freedom. I analyze how Piercy's novel removes motherhood's biological enchainment and mandates equality through racial mixing in her futuristic world of Mattapoisett. Making both men and women "mothers" and breaking genetic and cultural bonds provides the opportunity to disrupt postcolonial hierarchies. While Piercy's novel appears to present a feminist decolonial utopian world, I argue that Mattapoisett's glaring dystopian features - including the removal of bodily autonomy and racial preservation - create a flawed utopia.