“The Farm” presents pregnancy as a form of social, biological, and economic control

While, on one hand, horror has brought to the fore the subgenre pregnancy horror with films ranging from Rosemary's Baby (1968) to more recent ones like Mother!and Antibirth from 2017, science fiction also has its own way of exploring the themes of fertility and pregnancy. Among the most popular titles today are the series The Handmaid’s Tale, based on the book of the same name published by Margaret Atwood in 1985, as well as a recent Brazilian release, the film Divine Love , scheduled for release on the 27th of this month.

In Brazil and around the world, we are witnessing different governments addressing the issue of reproduction and female fertility in different ways: in Japan, few children are being born; in the United States, various states have made abortion illegal and the prospect is for this to become a national rule; in Brazil, we have a ministry specifically titled the Ministry of Women, Family and Human Rights, currently led by Minister Damares Alves, who openly expresses her opinions regarding the role of women and gender issues.

Symptomatically, the novel "The Farm" by Joanne Ramos was also recently published. The novel stands out for presenting a completely plausible narrative, yet one that is interwoven with dystopian and even science fiction aspects, as it is enhanced by technological elements. In short, the book's title refers to a specific location, a rural retreat where marginalized women are taken to carry the children of the 1% of families who hold all the world's wealth to their maximum potential. The article published on the website The Economist highlights the plot's unsettling realism:

“For Jane, a job at Golden Oaks, an elegant estate north of Manhattan, seems too good to be true. She spends her days dressed in cashmere, doing light exercise, and eating organic superfoods. Her room is far more luxurious than the dorm in Queens where she and her newborn daughter were crammed in with dozens of other Filipina women; the pay is much better than her previous jobs. The problem is that she had to abandon her daughter, give up her freedom, and carry a baby for one of the most powerful women in the world.”

These women follow specific prescriptions, such as eating customized diets, wearing a bracelet to monitor their activity levels, and using wearable devices that play Mozart symphonies and Churchill speeches directly to the womb—all as a strategy to enhance the fetus. All the women are also subjected to constant surveillance performed by cameras scattered throughout the facility. The only advantage a woman can have in Ramos’s story is being white and, particularly, having a college degree.

Interestingly, as the report points out, the book’s author has a background in economics and has even contributed to The Economist. Now, however, through fiction, Ramos explores issues of wealth and its influence on the world. “A chapter in which Jane’s older, savvier cousin, Ate, explains the art of gestating a high-end baby is especially incisive: ‘They will tell you to “make yourself at home”—but they don’t want you to feel at home!’ But the book is too subtle to be a satire; instead, it turns into a thriller. Jane becomes increasingly worried about her daughter’s well-being, just as the reader discovers the sinister lengths Golden Oaks will go to for its clients.”

Another point raised by the Economist report is that the author herself had her family emigrate from the Philippines to Wisconsin when she was six, so her story is shared through the four main characters. Both Jane and Ate, who had emigrated to the United States decades earlier to support their children still in the Philippines, later meet Reagan, a young white woman who becomes Jane’s roommate at Golden Oaks, as well as Mae Yu, a woman in her 30s who runs the facility while planning her perfect wedding. “It would be easy to reduce these three characters to archetypes, but Ramos fills them with affection, sensitivity, and a distinct voice. Together, these women tell the story of an America where ‘you need to be strong or young if you aren’t rich.’”

In fact, it’s so plausible that it’s frightening. Or, in other words, reality can be more haunting than fiction.