“Queer Reproductive Labor, Normalization, and Standardization”

On June 11, 2026, the social science news portal Soziopolis published a new review by Cornelia Schadler (University of Vienna) of the monograph “On the Path to Normality? LGBTQ+ Families and Their Struggle for Recognition” by Julia Teschlade, Mona Motakef, and Christine Wimbauer.

The review states, among other things:

“On the Path to Normality? is an important counterpoint to the narrative of a linear success story in sexual politics. It makes it clear that the struggle for recognition does not end in the courtroom, but rather continues in the daily negotiation of visibility and safety—and that these struggles remain necessary in the face of real backlashes and violence against queer lives. For sociological family research, this volume provides indispensable insights for understanding the family no longer as a static structure, but as a social construction shaped by unequal power relations. (…)

On the Path to Normality? is distinguished by a combination of theoretical rigor and empirical depth that makes this volume unique: from the reconstruction of multi-phase normalization processes to the subtle nuances of everyday life, in which discrimination is anticipated, fended off, sometimes reinterpreted, and occasionally strategically rendered invisible. The authors demonstrate that normalization does not mean depoliticization, but rather is a form of labor that enables both protection and change. Because the authors take the ‘doing family’ of queer families seriously as a performative practice, they are able to show how queer families simultaneously utilize and subvert normative expectations—and thus constantly necessitate a new answer to the question of what family is and can be.”

You can read the review here (in german) on Soziopolis.

The book “On the Road to Normality? LGBTQ+ Families and Their Struggle for Recognition” is available for free here (in german) via open access.