The Mommy Myth: The Idealization of Motherhood and How It Has Undermined All Women

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Simon and Schuster, Feb 8, 2005 - Family & Relationships - 383 pages
In the current political climate, it is sometimes challenging to think back to the heyday of second-wave feminism, probably around 1970, when women in many facets of our society were applying critical concepts when thinking about their position inside and outside the family. It is challenging because it's so far from the current reality, in which "feminism" has such a bad name. How was this shift accomplished? While Susan Douglas and Meredith Michaels do not give us the complete answer (perhaps no one can), they well illustrate that a shift in our popular vision of feminism has occurred, discuss in detail the extent of this shift and its impact on the lives of Americans and their families, and go on to offer a skillful explanation of the political forces that led to this situation. The Mommy Myth helps us document the scary trek from feminism to a post-feminist netherworld that makes the false assumption that feminism's goals have all been achieved, questioned, and surpassed. For that, American women, and all our moms, are deeply indebted to this book.
 

Contents

INTRODUCTION The New Momism
1
Satanism Abduction
85
FOUR Attack of the Celebrity Moms
110
NINE Moms A Us
268
EPILOGUE Exorcising the New Momism
331
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About the author (2005)

Susan J. Douglas is the Catherine Neafie Kellogg Professor of Communication Studies at the University of Michigan. She is the author of Listening In: Radio and the American Imagination, Where the Girls Are: Growing Up Female with the Mass Media, and Inventing American Broadcasting, 1899-1922. Her journalistic articles have appeared in The Nation, Ms., In These Times, TV Guide, and The Progressive. Meredith W. Michaels is a writer who doubles as a philosophy professor at Smith College. Her research and writing focus on the way that cultural changes affect our understanding of reproduction, parenthood, and childhood.

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