Organic Sex Role Specialization — Optimal Genetic Strategies Available to Purchase

This entry records a conversation that lays out the historic framing of sex roles and genetic strategies in relation to discourses of birth control and overpopulation. It also discusses the contemporary trajectory of these ideas in eugenic and eco-fascist movements. In particular, it considers how the birth control pill is tied to a history of colonial domination through early twentieth-century trials in Puerto Rico, even as the pill was later celebrated for creating the conditions for sexual autonomy. Shifting to the COVID-19 pandemic, the conversation criticizes the perversity of calling for care while ignoring its underlying capitalist and colonial articulations.