Elena Petkova-Antonova
Abstract:
In recent years, a public campaign promoting fertility and reproduction was launched in Bulgaria. It was organized by a civil association called “Movement for a National Cause” [Dvizhenie za natsionalna kauza], its abbreviation in Bulgarian, DNK, deliberately alluding to the abbreviation of the deoxyribonucleic acid, DNA. The founders of the association are popular public figures in Bulgaria – TV producers, singers, sportsmen, TV celebrities, etc. Their main purpose was to support and encourage Bulgarians to choose to have children. The paper examines the visual and media representations of the campaign as part of Bulgarian popular culture in recent years. It furthermore examines its ambivalent reception in the public sphere – there were just as many supporters and participants in the campaign as there were those who had reservations about its public messages. Nevertheless, this particular campaign provides an insightful case study as it appears to be both shaping and reflecting certain tendencies in Bulgarian society concerning reproduction, gender relations and gender policy in particular.
Keywords: reproduction, media campaign, discourse analysis, radical feminism, gender policy.
