Journal of the Motherhood Initiative for Research and Community Involvement (JMI - York University)

Johnson, Violet M. Showers

Fostering or Surrogate Mothering as an Immigration Tool: The Making of Transnational West Indian Families in the First Half of the Twentieth Century

O'Neil, January Gill

290             volume 2,  number 2
Tonight,	we	do	dinner	easy.
I	take	measuring	bowls
from	the	cabinets,
mix	Bisquick,	egg,	and	milk
with	a	wooden	spoon,
fold	the	batter
while	semi-sweets
drop	from	my	daughter’s	fingers.
My	son	mans	the	griddle.
I	hold	his	hand
as	he	flips	with	a	spatula.	Each	cake
a	toasted	sun	in	a	cast	iron	sky.	
Everything	floats	in	a	sea	of	syrup
in	this	unhurried	hour	
at	the	end	of	the	day.	
And	my	heart,	full	from	laughter,
requires	no	napkin.
I	lick	happiness	my	fingers
Chocolate Chip Pancakes, 7 p.m.
january gill o’neil


English

Chocolate Chip Pancakes, 7 p.m.

Toro-Morn, Maura I.

Gonzalez, Nilda Flores

Transitional Latina Mother--Activists in the Americas: The Case of Elvira Arellano and Flor Crisostomo

 journal of the motherhood initiative             285 
	 	 	 	 	 	 —for my son
You	are	not	who	they	say	you	are.
You	are	Nubian	with	white	stripes
and	sport	a	Mohawk	for	a	mane.
Once	hunted	to	extinction,	
your	deafening	bray	is	a	song	for	the	fallen.
Some	might	even	say	you	are	God’s	mistake.	
But	how	ordinary	the	world	would	be	without	you.	
They	will	say	stay	in	your	herd,	stick	close	to	your	mother’s	side.	
Remember,	you	are	all	equine.	
Put	another	way,	you	are	a	wild	ass.	
Raise	those	ears.	Kick	your	legs.	
Gaze	that	impenetrable	stare.	
Your	forefathers	once	grazed	on	African	grasses.	
Your	place	in	this	world	is	the	one	you	claim.
Zebra
january gill o’neil


Zebra

Ray, Sarah Jaquette

How Many Mothers Does it Take to Change All the Light Bulbs? The Myth of Green Motherhood

 journal of the motherhood initiative             279 
The Year in Review
january gill o’neil
It	was	the	year	you	displaced	years	of	silence	
the	way	the	body	displaces	water	in	a	pool	
the	way	the	bed	remains	sullen	from	your	depression.	
It	was	the	year	the	neighbors	behind	us	bought	a	hot	tub
splashing	their	happiness	in	our	faces.	I	watched		
from	the	bathroom	window	hoping	they	would	boil.
It	was	the	year	I	knew	we	would	never	be	that	family.
No	one	would	ever	been	envious	of	us,	never	say,
look	at	that	family.	See	the	happiness	on	their	faces.
	
No.	It	was	the	year	the	word	“maybe”	pivoted	
like	a	turnstile	in	the	middle	of	our	fights	
refusing	all	requests	for	wisdom	or	clarity,	
the	year	you	decided	staying	was	more	of	a	risk
than	leaving.	The	year	you	had	no	fight	left	in	you.
What	a	soul	crushing	year	it	was.	It	was			
the	sink	or	swim	year.	The	year	I	learned	everything	
alive	in	the	world	survives	by	adapting,	
the	year	you	displaced	us	as	freely	as	water.		


The Year in Review

McCabe, Melanie

172             volume 2, number 1
You hear of them, the teller suddenly dismissive
or snide or welling in a venom that chokes the voice. 
These are the mothers who botched the job so badly
that they are abandoned along the side of the trail, 
too heavy to be carried out of the canyon. 
Deadweights. Millstones. A leak
of muddy river bailed from a swamping boat. 
A harpy set adrift on an ice floe.
I never planned on becoming one of them.
I used to pull a chair up to her crib to watch 
her sleep, to wonder at the way the small lungs knew
what to do, without my having to instruct them.
For years, I read to her in her twin bed, waiting 
for questions that rose out of a place so old
that neither her father nor I had ever been to it.
And for years, our house tilted in its plot of earth — 
groundwater swelled, breaking levels of concrete,
patterns of stones — but slowly, and so we tilted with it.
There was no one day when everything changed.
There were so many days that I couldn’t count all
the steps she was taking backwards, away from me.
melanie mccabe
Those Mothers


Those Mothers

Pasternak, Cortney

Palestinian Versus Western Mothering: Reconsidering Dichotomies in Media Representation

Kennedy, Sarah

200           volume 1,  number 1
III. Academic Building (Early Modern Studies: Anatomy Lesson)
The hairline
  plucked to a plain,
    hair noosed to
raise the sheet
   of the forehead.
     Corsets not
the iron maidens
  the Victorians
sucked themselves into
   but not a portrait
that doesn’t feature
  a flattened breast.
     Kids
with old-man faces
   stuck on stubby necks.
But heigh-ho
  for the Elizabethans,
for the monarch
   who threw her shoes and whacked
the ears off offending
    preachers.  Fairy
sarah kennedy
Occupation
 journal of the motherhood initiative            201 
Queen, Cult of the Virgin,
    forget Mary
Stuart, lacking one head,
    blindfolded Jane,
groping
  for the chopping block—let’s look at
Gwerful Mechain.
   But which one?—the devout
one who sings songs
  to God or the sexy
one who writes odes
    to her body?  Oh, Jane,
she cried out to the crowd
     who had gathered
to watch her die,
   fingers closing on air:
where is it, good people,
    give me some help.


Occupation

Logsdon-Conradsen, Susan

book reviews
288          volume 1, number 2
The collection concludes on a hopeful note: “Bloggers willing to write with 
transparency about motherhood provide a place of community for readers; 
within that community, blogs are often consciousness-raising; and, when 
taken as a group, these blogs change our understandings of normative moth-
erhood. The personal motherhood blog is political” (Wilkins 152). Many of 
the bloggers in this collection claim, in fact, to have been changed by mom-
myblogs: “If we can harness all of the interest in the mamasphere and direct 
it towards improving the world for ourselves and our children, blogging will 
become a truly radical act” (Lawrence 139). 
This volume should be required reading for scholars of mothering and 
technology. It “deliberately resist[s] the notion that only traditional scholarly 
knowledge is valid” (35) and will appeal equally to mothers who blog, moth-
ers who read blogs, and contemporary news writers who seek to understand 
the complexity of mothering in the twenty-first century.
Mother Knows Best: Talking Back to the “Experts” 
Jessica Nathanson and Laura Camille Tuley. 
Bradford, on: Demeter Press, 2009.
Reviewed by Susan Logsdon-Conradsen
In today’s world, where a Google search for books on “parenting advice” 
yields over 1,150 results, Mother Knows Best: Talking Back to the “Experts” is 
a refreshing and much-needed anthology. Editors Jessica Nathanson and 
Laura Camille Tuley boldly challenge the overwhelming amount of “expert” 
advice on mothering and its underlying assumption that without such advice 
mothers would fail due to incompetence. By tackling controversial topics in 
a thought-provoking manner, their book offers a “feminist, mother-centered 
critique” of “expert” maternal advice.
The book includes critical perspectives on expert advice in four major areas 
of motherhood. A feminist analysis of politics and power dynamics unifies 
the volume, which emphasizes the point that mother wisdom is inherently 
unique. Some entries are traditional narratives, others include poetry, and 
several offer first-person accounts. “A Mosaic of Pregnancy Expertise” by 
Amber Kinser, for example, is a brilliant juxtaposition of quotes from medical 
texts and from mothers which demonstrates the limited capacity of tradi-
tional medical discourse to capture the true language of pregnancy. Similarly, 
“Creative Gestation” by Laura Major uses mother’s voices via childbirth po-
etry to illustrate the reality of birth.
book reviews
 journal of the motherhood initiative          289 
The first section, pregnancy and childbirth, addresses the controversial 
issue of the “social policing” of pregnant women; it cites light drinking to 
illustrate the ways in which the pregnant woman is required to give up her 
personhood and agency. The theme of the surveillance of pregnant women, 
as well as a discussion of the increasing medicalization and objectification 
of the pregnant body, is continued in later chapters.
The second section on breastfeeding is particularly strong and offers a rare 
exploration of the degree to which the “choice” to breastfeed (unanimously 
recommended by experts) is constrained by social and economic factors. This 
section does not dispute the nutritional benefits of breast milk, but it pro-
vides a much-needed feminist analysis of the impact of socio-demographics 
on those who breastfeed. Also discussed are the psychological and physical 
demands of exclusive breastfeeding and the contrasting public perception of 
breasts as both sexual—to be exposed—and maternal—to be hidden. In addi-
tion, breastfeeding is explored through the lens of intensive “good” mothering 
and is linked to gender inequity. Finally, the book asserts that breastfeeding 
yields its own knowledge which is empowering and fundamentally different 
from what is offered to women by “experts.” 
Section three focuses on raising children through attachment parenting. 
The authors address several complex and controversial topics: the medical 
establishment and mandatory vaccinations; feminists’ struggle with the para-
dox of being drawn to attachment parenting—which values mothers—while 
recognizing its privileged nature, how it accommodates patriarchy, and fosters 
gender inequity; how the patriarchic work world constrains women’s ability 
to choose parenting practices; and the heterosexist underpinnings of attach-
ment theory.
The final section on being “good” mothers examines the idealistic and un-
realistic standards imposed on contemporary mothers, particularly within the 
intensive mothering movement. The first entry addresses racism and sexism, 
while the second entry vividly portrays the dark side of parenting and how 
“expert” advice can be useless while mother wisdom can often lead to un-
explainable joy in the midst of anger and chaos. A wonderful example of 
making homemade “turkey cookies” to prove her maternal qualifications is 
given in the article by Angela Hattery to illustrate the gender differences in 
parenting expectations and the ways in which mothers are constantly being 
judged and pitted against each other. How mothers are challenging norma-
tive expectations is cited in reviews of the writings of Ariel Gore and the 
musings of Jessica Nathanson on the need for mothers to have creative and 
intellectual lives of their own. 
Entries addressing the politics of homebirth and the increasing medicaliza-
tion of childbirth would have been valuable additions to this volume. Further, 
book reviews
290          volume 1, number 2
as the editors concede, a deeper examination of identity politics and how 
power and privilege influence mothers’ understanding of and reaction to “ex-
pert” advice would be valuable in a future anthology. 
Nonetheless, by the end of this anthology a reader feels empowered and 
compelled to critically question parenting “experts.” Mother Knows Best re-
futes the patriarchal notion that mothers need authority figures to tell them 
how to raise their children. It urges mothers to listen to their own authentic 
and authoritative voices, which may in fact be shouting that conventional 
advice is flat out wrong. 
Mothering Canada: Interdisciplinary Voices 
Shawna Geissler, Lynn Loutzenhiser, Jocelyn Praud, Leesa Streiler, eds. 
Bradford, on: Demeter Press, 2010.
Reviewed by Serena Patterson
Mothering Canada is promoted as a “multidisciplinary, bilingual anthology of 
mothering research in Canada that illustrates facets of Canadian mothering 
through different disciplinary lenses.… The anthology confirms that issues 
of mothering are prevalent in the Canadian psyche, and in much need of 
research, communication and change.”
 Especially moving are pieces on mothering in rural settings: Susan Picard’s 
wrenching poem, “Severed,” Patricia Miller-Schroeder’s “Mothering Under 
Duress: Tuberculosis and Stigma in 1950s Rural Saskatchewan,” Aboriginal 
Donna Lester-Smith’s raw grief in “A Poem to my Mother,” Elder Betty 
McKenna and her granddaughters’ “Voices from the Moon Lodge.” No less 
powerful are the difficult pieces by Pamela Downe, “Mothering in the Con-
text of hiv/aids,” and Jane Arsenault “Sick Mother, No Mother.”
Several visual pieces are especially evocative: the touching image of Susan 
Shantz and her daughter at the beginning of Bare Life (“technologies of ten-
derness”), Margaret Bessai’s hilarious Self Portrait of the Artist in Her Studio, 
Jewell Goodwin’s haunting Heimlich, and Michelle Glennie’s Madonna and 
Child, Melanie and Zack. Elizabeth MacKinzie is as adept with words as she 
is with images, and this allows her Representing Maternal Ambivalence to be 
entered by the reader who is brought by the images to those places that can 
elude the wordsmith.
This book does not offer a complete or unified portrait of mothering in 
Canada. Instead, its pieces are like shards of light, illuminating aspects of the 
mothering experience. It is a book of treasures, filled with pieces to ponder 
and to share with other readers. 
