Mommy Angst: Motherhood in American Popular Culture

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This revealing work looks at representations of motherhood from a wide range of pop culture sources to explore larger questions about the image and self-image of mothers in the United States. How has the popularity of Gilmore Girls influenced perspectives on teenage pregnancies How did the mother-in-law assume such monstrous proportions Did the Republicans' view of motherhoodand their continual hectoring of Hillary Clinton for putting ambition ahead of familycost them the 2008 election Mommy Angst: Motherhood in American Popular Culture considers questions like these as it probes our country's views on mothers, and how those views shapeand are shaped bythe habitually oversimplified portrayals of mothers in pop culture, politics, and the media. Mommy Angst gets at the heart of America's anxious ambivalence toward motherswhether sanctifying them, vilifying them, or praising the ideal of motherhood while thoroughly undervaluing the complexities of their lives and their contributions to family and society. To highlight the many sides of motherhood, the collection contrasts the lives of a diverse range of real moms with their pop culture representations, including Jewish mothers, Cuban mothers, teenage mothers, mothers with disabilities, working versus stay-at-home moms, and more.

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This collection of 12 essays, edited by Hall (English, Ohio Dominican U.) and Bishop (communication, U. of Illinois Urbana-Champaign), examine images of motherhood in American popular culture. Topics include enduring moral tropes of motherhood in television; the absence of mothers and the erasure of agency in Disney portrayals of princesses; the marginalization of mothers in Cuban American pop culture; the portrayal of mother-as-monster; motherhood and violence in the films of Quentin Tarantino; class and teenage pregnancies in American culture; deployed motherhood in the political campaigns of Nancy Pelosi, Hillary Clinton, and Sarah Palin; post-pregnancy plastic surgery as cultural symbol; changing perceptions of adoption in American history; the consumer culture of motherhood on the Internet; and types, stereotypes, and counter-types of the Jewish mother in American culture. * Reference & Research Book News *
Recommended. Lower- and upper-division undergraduates; general readers. * Choice *

Author Bio

Ann C. Hall is professor of English at Ohio Dominican University, Columbus, OH. Mardia J. Bishop is in the Communication Department at University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL.