Plan would reduce ‘women to breeders’ and ‘second-class’ citizens, Indiana professor says
A University of Southern Indiana professor compared the Trump administration’s proposed $5,000 “baby bonus” to the Nazi fascist agenda in a recent interview.
Denise Lynn, a professor of history and gender studies, told the Huffington Post that the Nazis created a similar program in Germany to “confine women, essentially, to second-class citizenship.”
In April, the Trump administration said it is considering offering a $5,000 “baby bonus” to mothers after they give birth in an effort to support and encourage families, ABC News reports. Another proposal under consideration would create a “National Medal of Motherhood” to honor women with six or more children.
“It really reduces women to breeders,” Lynn (pictured) said when asked about the “motherhood” medal.
“It ignores the deep complexity of childbirth. You have a uterus and ovaries, but that doesn’t mean you have the ability to have children. But if you can’t have children and you have a uterus and ovaries, do you no longer have status in your own country? It marginalizes fathers and fatherhood. There’s so many layers of issues,” she told the Huffington Post.
Although Lynn spoke positively about supporting parents and children through “maternity leave, Medicare for all, adequate prenatal and postnatal care and affordable childcare,” she criticized the Trump administration for proposing the $5,000 support check.
As she told the Huffington Post:
“I was having a conversation with one of my colleagues the other day about the proposed $5,000 allowance for someone who has a child. That reminded me of the loans that Nazi Germany afforded to white Aryan families. That is very similar. It’s also a joke — $5,000 isn’t going to do much.
“Under Nazi Germany’s racial hygiene laws, they gave out loans to families, specifically to the husband, that promised you could reduce your payback amount with every subsequent child. One of the big things that the women I studied — and they talked about it well into the Cold War — is the fascist triple K: Kinder, Küche, Kirche, which means “children, kitchen, church.” This pro-natalist ideology sought to confine women, essentially, to second-class citizenship.”
Lynn also linked Republican leaders’ pro-family efforts to eugenics and racism, continuing:
“In United States’ history, pro-natalist policies were directly linked to eugenics. Eugenics emerged in the U.S. when middle- and upper-class white women were having fewer children, while immigrants and people of color continued to have more children. A lot of that has to do with access to birth control information, and eugenicists wanted to flip that script completely and encourage white birth rates. But only appropriate white birth rates.
“… We can definitely still see the eugenicist language today. I don’t think it’s a coincidence that forced birth policies jeopardize people of color the most because white nationalists have no interest in their birth outcomes. They’re only concerned about producing more white babies.”
However, other scholars have encouraged more support for families of all races, pointing to research showing that marriage and childbearing are good for individuals and society.
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IMAGE CAPTION AND CREDIT: A mother works from home while holding her child. Goodluz/Shutterstock