The Mommy Myth: The Idealization of Motherhood and How It Has Undermined All Women

by Susan Douglas

Other authorsMeredith Michaels (Author)
Hardcover, 2004

Status

Available

Publication

Free Press (2004), Edition: First Printing, Hardcover, 400 pages

Description

Susan Douglas first took on the media's misrepresentation of women in her funny, scathing social commentary Where the Girls Are. Now, she and Meredith Michaels, have turned a sardonic (but never jaundiced) eye toward the cult of the new momism: a trend in American culture that is causing women to feel that only through the perfection of motherhood can true contentment be found. This vision of motherhood is highly romanticized and yet its standards for success remain forever out of reach, no matter how hard women may try to "have it all."The Mommy Myth takes a provocative tour through the past thirty years of media images about mothers: the superficial achievements of the celebrity mom, the news media's sensational coverage of dangerous day care, the staging of the "mommy wars" between working mothers and stay-at-home moms, and the onslaught of values-based marketing that raises mothering standards to impossible levels, just to name a few. In concert with this messaging, the authors contend, is a conservative backwater of talking heads propagating the myth of the modern mom.This nimble assessment of how motherhood has been shaped by out-of-date mores is not about whether women should have children or not, or about whether once they have kids mothers should work or stay at home. It is about how no matter what they do or how hard they try, women will never achieve the promised nirvana of idealized mothering. Douglas and Michaels skillfully map the distance traveled from the days when The Feminine Mystique demanded more for women than the unpaid labor of keeping house and raising children, to today's not-so-subtle pressure to reverse this thirty-year trend. A must-read for every woman.… (more)

User reviews

LibraryThing member bookmindful
Both enlightening and infuriating. I completely agree with about 90% of what they say, but the sarcastic tone distracts from the content.
LibraryThing member kaelirenee
This book did a wonderful job of getting my blood boiling. I wish it contained more suggestions on how to improve, things though. I still read parenting and women's magazines with a jaded eye (when I read them at all). I'd always wondered when the switch from "moms make their kids feel guilty" to
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"moms feel guilty about everything" happened, and Douglas helps analyze that. I need to reread this book when I have more time to concentrate on it, though-but I'm a mom, so that doesn't really happen.
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LibraryThing member lilysea
This is a nice introduction to the ways in which the motherhood mystique hurts women and children (and sells products). It's sort of Ann Crittendon's The Price of Motherhood lite. Crittendon is better, but this is not a bad place to start looking into the issue.
LibraryThing member yankeesfan1
This was definitely an interesting read for a women's studies major headed to college in about a month. It looked at media treatment of mother and motherhood over the past thirty years or so. It covered a variety of topics from celebrity moms, to the "mommy wars," to toy marketing. I found the
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chapter on toy marketing to be fascinating, as well as the sections on Susan Smith and Andrea Yates, It is quite interesting to compare their treatment by the media. Overall, a fascinating read.
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LibraryThing member pjlioness
It made a lot of good points, especially about how mothers are portrayed in the news media (the topics of crack babies and child safety in particular), but I really didn't like their major beef with Attachment Parenting. I don't see anything anti-feminist about understanding that babies need the
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best, most compassionate care we can give them.
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LibraryThing member Devil_llama
One of the more important books of this century for those wishing to counteract the bright, shining stories of the "opt out" revolution. The authors do a good job of looking at the history and evolution of the myth of the feminine motherhood instinct, and include a thorough examination of that
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nasty piece of business thrown at all women in their 30s (no matter how many children they already have): the biological clock. A good corrective to relentless pro-natalism.
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LibraryThing member VintageReader
I really, really, really like this book. I like it so much I've read it 3/4 of the way through--twice. I think my problem in finishing it is that I get so angry when I read about the things my mother was up against in the 70s and 80s (e.g., legislation that got squashed by old rich men--mostly
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Republicans, but not all--that would have really helped her out) that I have to put down the book and think about it, and then I don't pick it up again. :-) I read it first when we were still deciding whether or not to have children, and this time, when my son was five (clearly, it did not deter me from reproducing, but it did make me think about things I hadn't considered). It's a great read; I just have a hard time reading it all the way to the end.
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Language

Physical description

400 p.; 9.1 inches

ISBN

0743259998 / 9780743259996

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