I listed Education, Containment, Incentivization and Deterrence as forms of reproductive control found in What Not
Can you think of any other forms of reproductive control that I did not list (What might stop someone from having a baby? What might pressure them to have a baby they don’t want?) Make a list of these additional forms of reproductive control.
Try to find examples of your new forms of reproductive control in What Not
If you can’t, why do you think this is? Do you think it is because these forms of control weren’t present in the UK in 1918? Or because people did not talk about them publicly in the UK in 1918?
In What Not the incentives and methods of deterrence deployed by the Ministry of Brains are very literal – either you get money or you get fined.
Can you think of any other forms of incentive or deterrence that could be used to control reproduction?
Compare the use of money to incentivise/deter people with more direct and violent methods of government control. Do you think the use of money is always prefereable? Why/why not?
Look at one of the scenes in What Not where they discuss the phenomenon of abandoned babies. Does this change how you feel about the system of fines and whether they are preferable/different to direct threats of violence?
In What Not there is only one baby discussed at any length: The Cheeper.
Read a scene with The Cheeper in and think about the forms of reproductive control that might have impeded his parents from having a child either coming directly from The Ministry of Brains or from other government/church/social sources.
Compare the attitude that the vicar and Mr Dixon the government explainer have to this baby born out of wedlock. How different do you think the Ministry of Brains is to the Church of England in terms of their attitude to ‘free love’?
Do you think depictions of children – like the Cheeper or the abandoned babies – are always just sentimental (appealing mainly to our feelings)? Or do you think they are also political?
What real life forms of reproductive control inspire dystopias?
One method of reproductive control that is not explicitly discussed in What Not is the control of sex.
Think back to an example of sex education you have received. This might have been in school, from a parent, from a book, online or from a friend.
How did the person/text which provided this education use storytelling to inform you about sex? Were there any dystopian elements to the storytelling that they used?
In your opinion was the sex education you received an attempt to control your sexuality and was this control malevolent (bad)?
Imagine that you have a friend called Kitty who is planning to have a baby.
What are some of the things Kitty would have to consider before making this decision. Make a list of the things that Kitty would definitely need to do before having a baby, and the things that she should probably think about.
Now highlight every item on the list that would cost Kitty money.
Look back on your list and think about whether there would be any additional items you would need to add, or any elements that would be more difficult depending on Kitty’s race, her immigration status, her sexuality, her dis/ability or whether or not she has a criminal record. This should help you think about how many different areas of society are related to reproduction.
A big part of the control of reproduction in What Not is through government propaganda.
Have a look through these World War I recruitment posters and think about the different methods that are used to try and persuade people to enlist [LINK]
Now, design your own poster urging people to follow the policies of the Ministry of Brains.
Were you able to use all of the methods deployed in the recruitment posters or were there some that you avoided? Were there any new methods you created which felt more suitable to talking about reproduction?
Can dystopias help us to imagine better forms of reproduction?
In What Not we see how the effects of reproductive control are not evenly felt. Some people are encouraged to have babies while others are stopped from having babies.
Can you think of a reproductive technology/form of birth control that could be used EITHER to give people more reproductive freedom OR to take that freedom away?
What are some of the factors which determine whether a technology is freeing or not? Think about who owns the technology, how its use is monitored and who by, and the power structures involved in families.
Make a list of the features of a technology which would ensure, as much as possible, that it is used to liberate and not control people.
Using this list design a poster advertising a utopian reproductive technology or form of contraception.
This could be a real technology or something that you have invented which you believe will free people from reproductive controls.
Compare this advert with the propaganda poster you made earlier. Are you using any of the same techniques in this advert that are used in the poster? What does this tell you about the relationship between utopia and dystopia.
Now, try and make a dystopian version of your advert where instead of highlighting the freeing aspects of this technology you highlight how it could be used by the government/church/corporations to control people. Think about the changes you made and what they tell you about reproductive control.
Write a definition of dystopianism focusing on how reproduction is controlled in dystopian texts. Now see if the previous texts in this series ‘count’ as dystopias according to this new definition.
How would you adapt the definition to encompass The Matrix, Parable of the Sower, We and Sorry To Bother You?
Would you want to adapt it or do you think that What Not is a different kind of dystopia or not a dystopia at all?
If you haven’t already, add a utopian element to your definition to show how dystopias critique forms of reproductive control and, maybe, help us to imagine better ones.
Katie McGregor Stone 