Works Cited
"Access’ Top 20 TV Moms Of All Time.” Access Hollywood. Access Hollywood, 10 Dec. 2009. Web. 9 May 2009.
Aristotle. “Rhetorics.” The Rhetorical Tradition: Readings from Classical Times to the Present. Ed. Patricia Bizell and Bruce Herzberg. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin's, 2001. Print.
DiQuinzio, Patrice. The Impossibility of Motherhood: Feminism, Individualism, and the Problem of Mothering. New York: Routledge, 1999. E-book.
Patricia Diquinzio’s book situates motherhood discourse as a site of contention not only within contemporary U.S. public discourse but within critical feminist discourse as well. Diquinzio examines how an “essential motherhood” narrative defines the values of women both as individuals and as a group, and how it causes tensions between the different, subjective experiences of mothers and the need to generate a collective public identity to gain recognition within patriarchal society. Diquinzio offers an interesting point of entry into this tension by citing tenets of Western “individualism” as the primary culprit; individualism defines humans as isolated beings, but whose subjectivity remains rational, coherent, and unified. This book explains how feminism needs to adopt this discourse to gain traction for equal rights, but that in doing so reinforces motherhood as an individual, coherent, and private experience. This text expands on the theme of motherhood as isolating, and the silencing of non-coherent narratives of motherhood. It provides a framework to examine how non-positive experiences of mothering are sidelined as irrational or isolated, and so sidelines any discussions of institutional, public changes and support for motherhood.
Douglas, Susan and Meredith Michaels. The Mommy Myth: The Idealization of Motherhood and How It Has Undermined Women. New York: Simon and Schuster, 2004. E-book.
Susan Douglas and Meredith Michaels’s book introduces and exposes the problematics of “new momism”, a new model mother in media who embodies all the old ideals of perfect, constant love and attention towards her children, while maintaining a successful career - professional or hobby. They explore the influence of mass media on the formation of motherhood, examining the mainstreaming of feminist ideas about women’s right and resultant media panic about threats to child development, and how that leads to “new momism”. This book provides a funny and thought-provoking evaluation of how the mainstream media has served to filter and (re)define feminism, and motherhood in particular, since the 1970’s, and in doing so validates or invalidates women’s experiences. Douglas and Michaels expose the ways in which mainstream media, and emerging new media, continues to perpetuate unattainable ideals of motherhood in the guise of progress. This book remains relevant to my study of motherhood discourses today, especially in examining new iterations of motherhood in “mommy blogging”, “celebrity mom websites”, and other individual expressions of popular mothering experience that often perpetuate rather than resist dominant normative motherhood narratives.
Knudson, Laura. “Cindy Sheehan and the Rhetoric of Motherhood: A Textual Analysis.” PEACE & CHANGE. 34. 2. 134-155. April 2009. Web. May 8 2016.
Laura Knudson’s article traces the media portrayal of Cindy Sheehan’s peace activism against the Iraq War, and how the rhetoric of motherhood was used to both validate her stance as well as discredit her message. Cindy Sheehan, mother of a deceased Iraq War soldier, bases her activism on her identity as grieving mother. Despite the initial positive response by media, Knudson examines how cultural expectations of motherhood are used to infantilize, discredit, and sometimes erase Sheehan’s peace message by ignoring her logic in favor of her grief and attacking her standing as a good mother. Knudson provides textual evidence on how “good motherhood” is constructed and made hypervisible within media, and how such rhetoric can silence, via threat of attack, mothers; specifically, she shows that a mother’s authority rests on her emotional relationship to child, and on being a “good mother” - an unattainable ideal. The article informs on my research on the policing and silencing of mothers’ voices via the epideictic, or praise/blame narratives, by media, and thereby undermining the authority to speak by holding mothers to an unattainable standard, discrediting them as “bad mother”, and prohibiting logical engagement with non-motherhood issues.
Murkoff, Heidi E, Arlene Eisenberg, and Sandee E. Hathaway. What to Expect When You're Expecting. New York: Workman Pub, 2002. Print.
Rich, Adriene. Of Woman Born: Motherhood as Experience and Institution. New York: Norton, 1976. Print.
Adrienne Rich recounts her own experiences of motherhood and examines them under a feminist lens, in the context of reified expectations of motherhood in current patriarchal society. She argues that institutionalized motherhood reduces women’s identities to the relationship to mothering - childless or good/bad mother - and sets up unreasonable ideals of constant, perfect love and attention towards their children. Rich provides a historical overview of motherhood as an institution, tracing how motherhood changed as humanity went from primitive societies to institutionalized patriarchy. Doing so allows readers to examine the behavioural and emotional ramifications on women - both mothers and not - as mothers soon became solely responsible for childrearing, and were isolated and barred from public participation. This informs my research on how certain motherhood experiences are naturalized within patriarchal society, and doing so simultaneously enables continued exclusion of women out of the public sphere and denies any discussion of motherhood experiences through a critical feminist lens.
What to Expect When You’re Expecting. Dir. Kirk Jones. Lionsgate, 2012. Film.
Aristotle. “Rhetorics.” The Rhetorical Tradition: Readings from Classical Times to the Present. Ed. Patricia Bizell and Bruce Herzberg. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin's, 2001. Print.
DiQuinzio, Patrice. The Impossibility of Motherhood: Feminism, Individualism, and the Problem of Mothering. New York: Routledge, 1999. E-book.
Patricia Diquinzio’s book situates motherhood discourse as a site of contention not only within contemporary U.S. public discourse but within critical feminist discourse as well. Diquinzio examines how an “essential motherhood” narrative defines the values of women both as individuals and as a group, and how it causes tensions between the different, subjective experiences of mothers and the need to generate a collective public identity to gain recognition within patriarchal society. Diquinzio offers an interesting point of entry into this tension by citing tenets of Western “individualism” as the primary culprit; individualism defines humans as isolated beings, but whose subjectivity remains rational, coherent, and unified. This book explains how feminism needs to adopt this discourse to gain traction for equal rights, but that in doing so reinforces motherhood as an individual, coherent, and private experience. This text expands on the theme of motherhood as isolating, and the silencing of non-coherent narratives of motherhood. It provides a framework to examine how non-positive experiences of mothering are sidelined as irrational or isolated, and so sidelines any discussions of institutional, public changes and support for motherhood.
Douglas, Susan and Meredith Michaels. The Mommy Myth: The Idealization of Motherhood and How It Has Undermined Women. New York: Simon and Schuster, 2004. E-book.
Susan Douglas and Meredith Michaels’s book introduces and exposes the problematics of “new momism”, a new model mother in media who embodies all the old ideals of perfect, constant love and attention towards her children, while maintaining a successful career - professional or hobby. They explore the influence of mass media on the formation of motherhood, examining the mainstreaming of feminist ideas about women’s right and resultant media panic about threats to child development, and how that leads to “new momism”. This book provides a funny and thought-provoking evaluation of how the mainstream media has served to filter and (re)define feminism, and motherhood in particular, since the 1970’s, and in doing so validates or invalidates women’s experiences. Douglas and Michaels expose the ways in which mainstream media, and emerging new media, continues to perpetuate unattainable ideals of motherhood in the guise of progress. This book remains relevant to my study of motherhood discourses today, especially in examining new iterations of motherhood in “mommy blogging”, “celebrity mom websites”, and other individual expressions of popular mothering experience that often perpetuate rather than resist dominant normative motherhood narratives.
Knudson, Laura. “Cindy Sheehan and the Rhetoric of Motherhood: A Textual Analysis.” PEACE & CHANGE. 34. 2. 134-155. April 2009. Web. May 8 2016.
Laura Knudson’s article traces the media portrayal of Cindy Sheehan’s peace activism against the Iraq War, and how the rhetoric of motherhood was used to both validate her stance as well as discredit her message. Cindy Sheehan, mother of a deceased Iraq War soldier, bases her activism on her identity as grieving mother. Despite the initial positive response by media, Knudson examines how cultural expectations of motherhood are used to infantilize, discredit, and sometimes erase Sheehan’s peace message by ignoring her logic in favor of her grief and attacking her standing as a good mother. Knudson provides textual evidence on how “good motherhood” is constructed and made hypervisible within media, and how such rhetoric can silence, via threat of attack, mothers; specifically, she shows that a mother’s authority rests on her emotional relationship to child, and on being a “good mother” - an unattainable ideal. The article informs on my research on the policing and silencing of mothers’ voices via the epideictic, or praise/blame narratives, by media, and thereby undermining the authority to speak by holding mothers to an unattainable standard, discrediting them as “bad mother”, and prohibiting logical engagement with non-motherhood issues.
Murkoff, Heidi E, Arlene Eisenberg, and Sandee E. Hathaway. What to Expect When You're Expecting. New York: Workman Pub, 2002. Print.
Rich, Adriene. Of Woman Born: Motherhood as Experience and Institution. New York: Norton, 1976. Print.
Adrienne Rich recounts her own experiences of motherhood and examines them under a feminist lens, in the context of reified expectations of motherhood in current patriarchal society. She argues that institutionalized motherhood reduces women’s identities to the relationship to mothering - childless or good/bad mother - and sets up unreasonable ideals of constant, perfect love and attention towards their children. Rich provides a historical overview of motherhood as an institution, tracing how motherhood changed as humanity went from primitive societies to institutionalized patriarchy. Doing so allows readers to examine the behavioural and emotional ramifications on women - both mothers and not - as mothers soon became solely responsible for childrearing, and were isolated and barred from public participation. This informs my research on how certain motherhood experiences are naturalized within patriarchal society, and doing so simultaneously enables continued exclusion of women out of the public sphere and denies any discussion of motherhood experiences through a critical feminist lens.
What to Expect When You’re Expecting. Dir. Kirk Jones. Lionsgate, 2012. Film.