Journal of the Motherhood Initiative for Research and Community Involvement (JMI - York University)
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Amish Femininity: New Lessons from the Old Order
Get PDFI consider how a woman is expected to do gender may influence how she is expected todo birth. I ask how mainstream norms of femininity, particularly those that celebratepassivity and weakness, manifest in a woman’s particular experience of childbirth.As a counterpoint, I examine how gender norms associated with Amish femininityshape Amish women’s experience of birth. I present an ethnographic account of threeaspects of Old Order Amish birth based on the criteria developed by Sarah Jane Brubakerand Heather Dillaway and consider (1) details of the birth setting, (2) issuesof control, and (3) how the use of medical technology (or lack thereof ) may be seen toinfluence a woman’s birth experience. I draw on two years of participant-observerdata to show how practices such as midwife-attended unmedicated homebirth come topossess specific social meaning for Amish women, and are tied to how Amish womendo gender. I conclude by suggesting that a discourse of femininity valuing hard work,body confidence, and shared power constructs an environment where the work of laboris equated with accomplishment rather than something distasteful to be avoided, andmay create a social context within which women can do birth differently
Mommy Blogging and Deliberative Dialogical Ethics: Being in the Ethical Moment
Get PDFThis article argues that while some mommy bloggers follow ethical practices in protecting the privacy of those they write about, others have given little thought to such self-regulation, leaving room and need for the dialogical blog-based forum proposed by the authors. Since mommy blogging takes family as its subject (and often family members who are dependent minors), confidentiality and privacy issues are particularly sensitive. Apart from an early effort to codify guidelines published on the BlogHer website, there has been little blog-based or scholarly discussion of ethical blogging practices. Several examples of prominent mommy bloggers who disclose sensitive information about others without apparent privacy concerns for purposes of entertaining or informing their audience are documented. To conclude, the authors propose opening their blog—Mommy Bloglines: Ta[l]king Care—as a forum for interactive community discussion of evolving practices, with a goal of identifying some shared values amidst diversity
Public Mothering: How Celebrity Mediascapes Shape Public Understandings of Transnationally Adopted Families
Get PDFTransnational adoption is a unique site in which to explore changing ideas andattitudes about kinship, womanhood and motherhood in Canada. This paper combinesmedia analysis and ethnographic research with Canadian adoptive motherswho went to China to adopt children. It examines how ideas about transnationaladoption are shaped in the media and in our communities. The celebrity providesa privileged site for contesting and negotiating how transnational adoption isunderstood by the general public. The media representations of transnationallyadoptive motherhood are reflected back in the everyday interactions of adoptivemothers in their communities. Mothers who participate in transnational adoptionsare constructed as either ‘good’ or ‘bad,’ both through the media and in everydaysocial interaction. Mothers are either perceived as ‘saints’ who save children fromunfortunate circumstances or ‘villains’ who purchase children. This research pointsout how women will justify their decision to adopt by aligning their adoption storieswith the discourse of ‘good’ adoption or ‘saving’ children. Transnational adoption isimmersed in a complicated discourse of critique and praise creating a dichotomy ofreactions to these public families. Families with transnationally adopted childrenbecome public families because the children do not look like biological kin. Themedia and the communities keep watch on these families, particularly the mothersand judge their reproductive choices
