My Body, My Right: Abortion as a Female Choice in Sara's and Revolutionary Road

Abstract

The female body is considered a medium for procreation and nurturance, and femininity often gets gauged in terms of a woman’s fecundity. A vital constituent of a conjugal relationship, procreation seldom becomes a woman’s choice, for the male partner colonizes her body. By denying women’s reproductive freedom, society confiscates the right to their bodies and compels them to live through the arduous phases of parturition, nurturance, and child care. The idea of abortion has been a contentious discourse; it questions and destabilizes male partners’ grip on women’s bodies. Films portraying the women’s choice of pregnancy and their right to abortion as reproductive emancipation have been a trope in recent times. Dwelling on the denial of women’s reproductive freedom in Revolutionary Road (2018) by Sam Mendes and Sara’s (2021) by Jude Anthany Joseph, this study deliberates on women’s bodily autonomy. The right to abortion decolonizes women’s bodies from the fetters of marital hegemony, allowing women to decide upon motherhood. Films under study portray the accomplishment of the aspirations of women that are ensued through abortion. By delineating the politics of body and reproduction, the study reckons on the right to one’s own body.