Think Outside My Box: Staging Respectability and Responsibility in Ireland’s Repeal the 8th Referendum

This article argues that the targeting of certain narratives womanhood, those deemed ‘respectable’ and ‘responsible’, operated as a key performative affective strategy during Irish 2018 Referendum on 8th Amendment Constitution. When to ‘repeal 8th’ amendment was announced, both pro-choice pro-life campaigns affiliated themselves with idealised imagery, strategies focused outdated patriarchal heterosexual constructions ‘good’ women, i.e., respectable responsible intention convincing middle-ground voters. Pro-life in Ireland are deeply oppositional; sides identify performativity respectability responsibility most influential narrative convince electorate signals conception embodied womanhood traditional family remains inextricably linked nationhood, entrenched ideological, affective, political, cultural, personal power. ‘Think Outside My Box’ is call cut ties intersect foundational myth modern and, female embodiment representation twenty-first century.