We are learning in real time that not everyone’s status as a “subject” is assumed in twenty-first century America. Womxn, people of color, and queer individuals are routinely treated as objects, even today. In the portrait project Womxn without Children the photographer explores the subject-ness of womxn who do not have children — whether by choice or circumstance.

For womxn in America, the reality of birthing and raising children is fraught, whether one desires to embark on that journey, or not. Womxn without Children explores these complex realities around bodily autonomy, desire, and shame related to reproduction for womxn in America today. It considers these realities for womxn who’ve declined motherhood, and those who’ve desired it but have encountered various barriers to becoming mothers. These subjects reveal that motherhood, and the desire for it, exists on a spectrum. Some project participants deeply desire to raise humans; others have known from early ages that the task of mothering was not for them. And yet, diving into the nuance of these stories revealed even more complexity: some who desired motherhood discovered their desire was rooted in societal presumption rather than autonomous desire; others were aware that their explicit desire to not mother children was connected to early life traumatic experiences. However, these reasons become deeply secondary when the question of personhood is increasingly in question in public discourse.

These subjects reveal that motherhood, and the desire for it, exists on a spectrum. Some project participants deeply desire to raise humans; others have known from early ages that the task of mothering was not for them. And yet, diving into the nuance of these stories revealed even more complexity: some who desired motherhood discovered their desire was rooted in societal presumption rather than autonomous desire; others were aware that their explicit desire to not mother children was connected to early life traumatic experiences. However, these reasons become deeply secondary when the question of personhood is increasingly in question in public discourse.

Some viewers of this work may dismiss the severity of this project’s words as fruitless “hand-wringing.” However, when a politician publicly proclaimed in May 2022 that abortion deprives the national economy of potential “able-bodied workers,” it and the legal consequences that followed made the dismissal of womxn’s autonomy — and the necessity of this conversation around the autonomy of female fertility — frighteningly clear.

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