Motherhood and the media under the Microscope: The backlash against feminism and the Mommy Wars (original) (raw)

2013, Imaginations: Journal of Cross-Cultural Image Studies/revue d'études interculturelle de l'image

AI-generated Abstract

This paper explores the phenomenon of "mommy wars" in American media and its implications for British mothers, examining the societal pressures that shape narratives around motherhood. It critiques media portrayals that pit working versus stay-at-home mothers against each other and argues that these narratives serve to enforce traditional gender roles and perpetuate misogynistic beliefs about women's place in society. The investigation highlights the need for a more nuanced understanding of the realities facing mothers today, including insufficient maternity leave, inadequate childcare, and gender inequality in the workplace.

17893-1617_7770279_77139466_Qualitative_Report_on_media_representation_of_single_motherhood.doc

Single motherhood is a topic that has come under intense scrutiny in the media for decades, due to claims that children who lack father’s involvement are vulnerable to development and behavioural problems. A substantial amount of information on single motherhood is conveyed via the media which play an integral part in presenting single mothers as an underclass, welfare claimants, morally unfit, poor mothers, unwed, unemployed and so on. Therefore, this report will use critical discourse analysis to evaluate how single motherhood is represented in online news media in the UK. The study utilised qualitative research design. Data was analysed using critical discourse analysis (CDA). Fairclough (1992) analytical framework of doing CDA was adopted for this study. Two themes were identified “welfare Spongers vs yummy mummy” and “single mum by choice vs no choice”. The study showed that not all single mothers are poor or state benefit dependants as there are wealthy single mothers with good jobs/ careers. Male partners not ready to take fatherhood responsibility and domestic violence contribute to why they are single mothers while some just choose to be single as a way of life by using a sperm donor. These findings suggest study the public readers and policy makers should change their perception and public attitudes towards single mothers who are perceived as marginalised group.

The ‘stay-at-home’ mother, postfeminism and neoliberalism: Content analysis of UK news coverage

European Journal of Communication, 2015

This article analyzes the construction in the UK media of the ‘stay-at-home mother’, a maternal figure who received increasing visibility during the recession and its aftermath. Based on a content analysis of UK national newspaper coverage of stay-at-home mothers (2008–2013), this article argues that the stay-at-home mother emerges from its press coverage as a neoliberal postfeminist subject. On the one hand, the coverage complicates claims about antifeminist backlash and women’s harking back to passive femininity. On the other hand, it fails significantly to undermine maternal femininity’s entanglement with neoliberalism, and reinforces the process described by McRobbie as ‘disarticulation’, by separating between middle-class mothers and working-class mothers.

Invisible Mothers: A Content Analysis of Motherhood Ideologies and Myths in Magazines

2003

The purpose of this study is to identify prevalent motherhood ideologies and myths in con- temporary women's magazines. The results indicate that contemporary magazines promote a traditional motherhood ideology, yet perpetuate motherhood myths that undermine moth- ers who stay home. Traditional motherhood, which excludes Women of Color and employed mothers, is promoted. Mothers are almost exclusively presented in the domestic,

The 1990s Shift in the Media Portrayal of Working Mothers

Sociological Forum, 2015

A cultural theme of distressed working mothers depicts working mothers as caught between the demands of work and family in an unforgiving institutional context. Susan Faludi first identified this theme as a conservative backlash against feminists' attempts "to have it all." But the same narrative helps support demands for more flexible work-family policies and more significant housework contributions from fathers. We explore this theme by coding 859 newspaper articles sampled from the 1981-2009 New York Times. Articles discussing problems for working mothers increased in the mid-1990s and have continued increasing into the 21st century. Other themes about problems and benefits for working mothers show quite different trends. There is also an unexpected mid-1990s shift in attention from problems working mothers are having at home to problems at work. The increase in the distressed working mother theme coincides with the mid-1990s stall in the gender revolution. The simultaneity of the cultural, economic, political and attitude trends suggests that the rise of the distressed working mother theme and the stall in the gender revolution have mutually reinforced each other over the last two decades.

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