Journal of the Motherhood Initiative for Research and Community Involvement (JMI - York University)
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An Historical Snapshot of the Relevance of Pregnancy for Lesbian Intimate Partner Violence
Get PDFIntimate partner violence (IPV) has been taken up with respect to heterosexual couplesfor several decades and strategies to address/support this have been integrated into health and social service programs and support. Pregnancy is one factor that has been associated with IPV. Nevertheless, despite the increasing attention to the lesbian babyboom from the mid-’70s in North America and affirmation of the diverse families who comprise communities and increasingly visible programming and services to meet the diverse needs of lesbians, less visible has been lesbian IPV and particularly in relation to motherhood, pregnancy or postpartum. This paper reports on an examination of scholarly literature on lesbian IPV and lesbian mothering undertaken in 2003 that suggested the limited visibility of childbearing in relation to lesbian IPV had implications for research and programming in a Canadian context. Ashistorical research, this inquiry aimed to be congruent with an advocacy stance, one that was accountable to lesbian communities The findings are situated in the current landscape of research and resources for childbearing lesbians given the uneven support for lesbian mothering and mothering-focused lesbian IPV
On the Margins of Religion/On the Forefront of Culture: The Image of the Matka Polka (Polish Mother) in Contemporary Poland
Get PDFAs Jane Bayes and Nayareh Tohidi point out in their introduction to Globalization, Gender, and Religion, one of the main issues that came up at the 1995 UN Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing was the conflict between women’s rights and gender norms based on myths present in their religions, nations, and cultures. While these myths are constructs of patriarchal society, feminists argue that women often fall victim to “false consciousness” resulting from their hegemonic nature. Moreover, women raised in ethnic communities struggle with an even more difficult task—bridging their personal needs with their desire for community affiliation -religious or cultural. Within the Polish culture, the image of the traditional Polish mother, otherwise known as the Matka Polka, has shaped what it means to be a woman in Poland in terms of her duty toward family and country. Dating back tothe Renaissance and the Holy Mother, who was supposed to watch over Poland and not let it fall in the hands of partitioning nations, the Polish Mother functions on the margins of the intersecting fields of religion, nation, and gender. This paper willattempt to analyze how the Matka Polka is defined in these terms and her impact on Polish women in relation to the roles ascribed to them by their ethnicity and culture
Reading Ursula Bowlby’s Letters (1939-1940): A Chronicle of First Time Motherhood
Get PDFDrawing on the correspondence Ursula Bowlby wrote to John Bowlby following thebirth of their first child, Mary Hamilton, this paper explores Ursula’s experience with motherhood in the context of pre-War Britain. Not withstanding Ursula’s privileged position in British society, her expressed views and feelings about mothering are in many ways both timeless and classless. Ursula’s experiences of motherhood are also significant since her husband was to become the world’s leading ‘expert’ on attachment and a staunch advocate for mothers as primary attachment figures and selfless participants in childrearing. Ursula’s letters provide a chronicle of the ordinary experiences of motherhood. Juxtaposed to the formidable influence that ‘attachment theory’ was to have in defining motherhood, her letters reveal what little influence her lived experiences had on her husband’s theoretical writings on the subject
Motherhood in Patriarchy: Animosity Toward Mothers in Politics and Feminist Theory — Proposals for Change
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Absence: Adoption in Art
Get PDFWhile the prolific ‘Madonna and child’ painterly motif, and recent MIRCI publicationsattest to the existence of representations of mothering in fine art throughthe ages, as well as contemporary art and photography, notably absent are images ofa different kind of maternity, and non-normative family formation unreliant onbiogenetic kinship or childbirth: the adoptive experience. Cover art for publications,usually from small press, or children’s book illustrations, saccharine posters and calligraphicproclamations available on the Internet appear to form this canon. Whataccounts for the historical absence of true artistic depictions of the social, cultural,psychological, physiological, and political complexity of adoption? What does theprivileging of the ‘biological imperative’ communicate? Finding art and artists whorepresent the adoptee, birthmother or adoptive mother was a challenge I took up, asa member of the adoption triad, familiar with some of its lingering pressures andstigmas despite growing openness in definitions of family and motherhood. Leadingto slim offerings of multimedia, installation art, and limited edition artist’s books,of the few contemporary images that do exist, I investigate what happens whenwe deconstruct them
“The Baby Became Horrible”: The Traumatized Adolescent Mother in Elizabeth Stuart Phelps’ 1870 Reforn Novel, Hedged In
Get PDFIn her 1870 novel, Hedged In, Elizabeth Stuart Phelps explores the painful psychological underpinnings that social and historical constraints imposed on unwed adolescent mothers, interrogating the widespread belief that these fallen girls could never recover from their pasts. Through her character of abandoned and pregnant fifteen-year-old Nixy Trent, Phelps shows her middle-class audience the story of a young woman who overcomes her past and becomes an upstanding member of her community, transforming from unwed mother to respected teacher. Yet Nixy’s story isnot a resounding success: the youthful heroine suffers severe emotional trauma akin to that of contemporary sufferers of PTSD, and this essay argues that her mental illness ultimately kills her, eliminating the collective good that she otherwise could have offered those around her. Thus, Phelps suggests that social standards simply refusedto keep pace with the reform she felt the United States as a whole must undergo toaid teen mothers in their emotional healing processes. She further seems to hope that Nixy’s story would stir her readers to reconsider their ill treatment of these young women and thereby offer faith in these girls’ abilities to change rather than persistently chastising (and, in essence, retraumatizing) them for pasts that could never be erased