Mother’s Day: From the CUP Archives
Happy Mother’s Day! In celebration of this special day and the evolving roles of mothers—and what defines a mother—today we are offering you roundup of op-eds about motherhood from the our archives.
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How Relevant Is Mother’s Day To Modern Parenting?
With Mother’s Day is this weekend, you might pose the question, “How is mother’s day relevant to parenting today?” Recently Dr. Shani Orgad, author of Heading Home: Motherhood, Work, and the Failed Promise of Equality met with the London School of Economics and Political Sciences (LSE) to discuss that question. View this video to hear what she has to say about the matter.
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How Baby Sussex Changes Mother’s Day
Shortly after the birth of his son, in a statement at Windsor Castle, the ecstatic new father Prince Harry said: “How any woman does what they do is beyond comprehension.” The Duke of Sussex’s public appreciation for women’s labor reflects the couple’s progressive mindset, as manifest throughout Meghan Markle’s pregnancy.
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Roundup: Shani Orgad And Heading Home
We kicked off Women’s History Month with Heading Home: Motherhood, Work, and the Failed Promise ofEquality, by Shani Orgad. In case you missed them, here’s a roundup of this week’s blog posts and other media coverage related to Orgad and her work.
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Defining “Mother” Today
We celebrate mothers, but who is a mother today, where, and for whom? Is a mother a woman who has borne a child, or a woman who has cared for a child, or a woman who has done neither? Is a mother necessarily a woman? And, can a child have only one mother at a time?
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Reassembling Motherhood: An Introduction
We invite you to sit back and reflect on how motherhood has transformed over time with this excerpt from Reassembling Motherhood: Procreation and Care in a Globalized World, edited by Yasmine Ergas, Jane Jenson, and Sonya Michel.
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The Ethics And Ambivalence Of Motherhood — Sarah LaChance Adams
In the following excerpt from the conclusion, Adams considers some of the philosophical and ethical issues related to motherhood and the complications of being a mother:
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Julie Stephens — The Contradictions Of Mother’s Day
The gift-exchange that is Mother’s Day can provide insight into cultural meanings around the maternal, particularly at a time when there is so much anxiety around human dependency and care. It is easy to identify the obvious commercialism and sentimentality surrounding the day when public and private attention is supposed to be focused on mothers.
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Kelly Oliver — Bella’s Baby: Extreme Home Birth
Twilight: Breaking Dawn continues a long line of horror films featuring women giving birth to otherworldly creatures. Bella, the teenage heroine of the Twilight series, is a modern day Rosemary’s Baby, whose pregnancy with a “demon” leaves her wasting away. While Rosemary drinks vile potions prepared by witches, Bella drinks blood out of kiddie Styrofoam cups complete with straw.
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Amy Allen — ‘Mommy Wars’ Redux: A False Conflict
On May 27, the New York Times published “‘Mommy Wars’ Redux: A False Conflict” by Amy Allen in their philosophy blog, The Stone. Allen is the Parents Distinguished Research Professor in the Humanities and a professor of philosophy and women’s and gender studies at Dartmouth College, the author of The Politics of Our Selves, and the General Editor of the excellent New Directions in Critical Theory series for Columbia University Press.