Randy
:
: Blaming moms is what psychoanalysts often does. Left-wing and/or
: feminist psychoanalysts have tried to blame authoritarian,
: patriarchal, and/or sexually predatory dads or father figures
: instead. Either way, it's no political help. Psychoanalysis has
: been a problem, rather than a solution.
:
: Cf.
:
: ***** _"Bad" Mothers: The Politics of Blame in Twentieth-Century
America_
: Edited by Molly Ladd-Taylor, Laurie Umansky
: ISBN 0814751202
: 400 pages
: Paperback
: $20.00
: Publication date: 11/1/1997
: Also available in Cloth
:
: In the past quarter century, "bad" mothers have moved noticeably
: toward center stage in American culture. While Susan Smith will
: eventually fade from the tabloids, the monster mother that she
: represents has a storied and long history. Mothers have been blamed
: for a host of problems, from autism in children (due to chilly
: "refrigerator" mothers), to homosexuality (attributed to "smothering"
: moms), to welfare dependency and crime (caused by black "matriarchs"
: and single mothers).
:
: Some mothers are not good mothers. No one can deny that. There are
: women who neglect their children, abuse them, and fail to provide
: them with proper psychological nurturance. While such mothers have
: always stimulated the American imagination, the definition of what
: constitutes a bad mother has expanded significantly in recent years.
: Indeed, with a distinct minority of American families living the
: two-parent, one-worker lifestyle once considered the norm, we all
: face the discomfiting question, Do most mothers now qualify as "bad"
: mothers in one way or another?
:
: Drawing together the work of prominent scholars and journalists,
: _"Bad" Mothers_ considers such diverse topics as the mother-blaming
: theories of psychological and medical "experts," bad mothers in the
: popular media, the scapegoating of mothers in politics, and the
: punitive approach to "bad" mothers by social service and legal
: authorities. The volume also includes the stories of individual "bad"
: mothers, from sterilization survivor Willie Mallory to rock star
: Courtney Love. Ably edited by two leading scholars, _"Bad" Mothers_
: marks an important contribution to the literature on motherhood.
:
: Molly Ladd-Taylor is Associate Professor of History at York
: University in Ontario and author of _Mother-Work: Women, Child
: Welfare and the State, 1890-1930_. Lauri Umansky is Assistant
: Professor of History at Suffolk University in Boston and author of
: _Motherhood Reconceived: Feminism and the Legacies of the Sixties_,
: also available from NYU Press.
:
: <http://www.nyupress.org/product_info.php?products_id=68> *****
: --
: Yoshie
:
: * Calendar of Events in Columbus:
: <http://www.osu.edu/students/sif/calendar.html>
: * Student International Forum: <http://www.osu.edu/students/sif/>
: * Committee for Justice in Palestine: <http://www.osudivest.org/>
: * Al-Awda-Ohio: <http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Al-Awda-Ohio>
: * Solidarity: <http://solidarity.igc.org/>
:
: