Voluntarily Childfree: Identity and Kinship in the United States

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Description

Voluntarily Childfree: Identity and Kinship in the United States discusses what it means to make a life worth living without traditional parenthood. Themes include authenticity and autonomy, partnership and support, fulfillment of the need to nurture, freedom of choice, and a desire to leave the world a better place than we found it. Despite the stigmas of selfishness and solitude, the voices in Voluntarily Childfree speak poignantly of their commitment to a different type of family that includes romantic partners, friends, pets, and future generations through mentorship and leadership opportunities. At its core, the human desire to connect and be heard remains, regardless of the decision to reproduce or not. This book is recommended for students and scholars of anthropology, sociology, cultural studies, and psychology.

Reviews

This study by Volsche (Boise State Univ.) focuses on the growing numbers of American young adults, both heterosexual and homosexual, who have resolved to remain child-free. The author, a cultural anthropologist, conducted in-depth interviews and participant observations with 30 child-free young adults between the ages 18 and 40 to collect her data, most of which were derived from social media sources, primarily Facebook groups. Within these intimate social circles, adults committed to remaining child-free shared their sorrowful stories of confronting stigmatization from parents and friends who disapprove of their anti-natalist values. With precision and thoughtfulness Volsche deeply examines the values and beliefs of this particular social subset, offering a well-written analysis. . . Volshes book is a helpful contribution. Summing Up: Highly recommended. All readership levels.

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Voluntarily Childfree shows us that kinship is not limited to those we've reproduced or even those of our same species, and that whether or not we become parents is at once a most basic and essential piece, and also just a very small part, of the complex that makes up our identities. Readers will delight in coming to know Shelly Volsche's childfree subjects and the full, fascinating, and complete lives they lead. -- Amy Blackstone, University of Maine
Voluntarily Childfree is a fascinating and well-written book on an important topic, one that has not been qualitatively investigated by scholars until now. This book will be of considerable interest to anthropologists, but also to a broader American publicnot the least, to all of us who are voluntarily childfree and seek to understand our personal decisions in a fuller societal context. -- Gordon Mathews, The Chinese University of Hong Kong
Voluntarily Childfree provides an insightful, timely, and relevant analysis into the experiences of those without children in the United States. Utilizing historical information and drawing on perspectives from anthropology and sociology, Shelly Volshe's contribution to literature is without a doubt highly valuable. Interweaving personal narratives and quotations with previous research, this book serves to help lessen the stigmas and inaccuracies that exist regarding the childfree population. Definitely a book to incorporate into classes related to marriage and the family in a variety of disciplines. -- Nicole Farris, Texas A&M University-Commerce

Author Bio

Shelly Volsche is lecturer in the Department of Anthropology at Boise State University.