The Politics of Motherhood: Activist Voices from Left to RightAlexis Jetter, Annelise Orleck, Diana Taylor Perhaps the most deeply rooted stereotype of motherhood, editor Annelise Orleck writes, is "the notion that mothers are by definition apolitical, isolated with their children in a world of pure emotion, far removed from the welter of politics and social struggle." This collection of essays, interviews, and personal narratives challenges the image of a mutually absorbed madonna and child and explodes the myth that bearing and raising children alters a woman's consciousness in some fundamentally conservative way, silencing her voice and disarming her rebellion. Instead, these contributors demonstrate that motherhood often redefines and revitalizes a woman's political consciousness. From Love Canal to the Kenyan countryside, from a public housing project in Las Vegas to a plaza in Buenos Aires, from a Minnesota Indian reservation to the Gaza Strip, the radicalizing events differ but the effects are the same. While most mothers from disparate classes, races, nationalities, cultures, and political ideologies mobilize to protect their children from toxic waste, war, racism, or political persecution, some such as KKK mothers fight to maintain hateful stereotypes that put others at risk. By examining the characteristics, effects, contradictions, and prices of "motherist" politics, we can begin to understand the forces that bring these women out from behind their curtains. |
Contents
Environmental Justice | 23 |
A Mothers Battle for Environmental Justice Alexis Jetter | 44 |
So Let It Start With MeAn Interview with Patsy | 53 |
Sometimes the Road Gets Lonely Dollie Burwell | 62 |
Wangari Maathai and | 70 |
Motherhood and | 77 |
Mothers and the Politics of Feeding | 87 |
I Got to DreaminAn Interview with | 119 |
Some Rememberings Grace Paley | 204 |
Good Motherhood as Patriotism Mothers | 225 |
Mothers in RaceHate Movements Kathleen Blee | 247 |
From Thelma and Louise to | 257 |
Housewives and Motherist Politics in the | 268 |
Redefining Motherhood Through Technologies | 285 |
Lesbian Motherhood and Other Small Acts | 311 |
Commercializing Motherhood Rita Arditti | 322 |
Chinese Mothers in New York Citys | 127 |
Mothers and the State | 141 |
Palestinian Motherhood and Political Activism on the | 161 |
Appropriations of | 169 |
The Mothers of the | 182 |
A Portrait | 197 |
Sex Determination | 334 |
The Uneasy Relationship Between | 349 |
Rethinking Maternal Politics Sara Ruddick | 369 |
List of Contributors | 383 |
Other editions - View all
Common terms and phrases
abortion activism activists African-American Alicia Partnoy Argentina Aryan baby backlash birth called Carver Terrace centers child Chinatown Chinese context culture daughter disappeared economic Ellen environmental justice ethnic fear Federcasalinghe feel female feminism feminist fight Gasparrini Gaza Strip gender genetic girls going Green Belt Movement housewives identity infertility interview intifada Israel Israeli issues Italian kids Klan knew Ku Klux Klan leaders lesbian lives look Love Canal male March maternal politics military motherhood movement Nazi Nevada never Oliver organized Palestinian parents Partnoy Plaza de Mayo poor pregnant Press protest racial racist reproductive resistance role Ruby Duncan Sara Ruddick sexual skinhead social society struggle surrogacy talk thing tion told toxic traditional Umm Saad Vegas Wangari Maathai Warren County welfare mothers woman women women's peace workers York