Tag Archive for "Motherhood"

Posts Tagged Motherhood

Not Oprah’s Book Club: The Unfinished Revolution

I had the absolute pleasure of sharing the stage recently with NYU professor and feminist sociologist Kathleen Gerson. Ann has written poignantly about her great book, The Unfinished Revolution: How a New Generation is Reshaping Family, Work, and Gender in America. I wanted to revisit it because there is just too much interesting stuff not to…

The big takeaway is that, as Gerson writes, “The tensions between changing lives and resistant institutions have created dilemmas for everyone.” As a generation that watched our parents struggle to find work/life balance in a world that doesn’t support it, we want more, but are pretty sober about the realities we face in trying to pursue it.

Further, the mainstream media’s constant pitting of ...

By goddessjaz • 13 years ago

Mother Murders Baby Over Farmville?

I saw this outrageous story today about a young mother who killed her 3-month-old son because he was crying while she played the popular Facebook timesuck game, Farmville. The mother, 22-year-old Alexandra V. Tobias, told the police that she shook the baby, left to smoke a cigarette to compose herself, and then returned and shook him again. She offers that he may have hit his head when she shook him and has pleaded guilty to second-degree murder carrying a possible sentence of 25 to 50 years in jail.

There is no doubt that this story is absolutely appalling and quite sad. The natural reaction is to ask how a mother could be so evil to kill her ...

By Vanessa • 13 years ago

Breastfeeding: It Does a Body Good (as in, makes it look better)

It looks like the New York State Department of Health is trying to encourage breastfeeding (yay!) by telling women they’ll totally lose sooo much weight if they do! (Huh?)

Interesting how they succeed in mocking your run-of-the-mill diet commercial while still managing to say, as Sociological Images aptly put it: “[D]on’t ever forget, ladies: one of your main responsibilities as a new mom is to lose the weight as quickly as possible.”

Transcript after jump.

It looks like the New York State Department of Health is trying to encourage breastfeeding (yay!) by telling women they’ll totally lose sooo much weight if they do! (Huh?)

Interesting how they succeed in mocking your run-of-the-mill diet ...

By Vanessa • 13 years ago

Breastfeeding: It Does a Body Good (as in, makes it look better)

It looks like the New York State Department of Health is trying to encourage breastfeeding (yay!) by telling women they’ll totally lose sooo much weight if they do! (Huh?)

Transcript after jump.

It looks like the New York State Department of Health is trying to encourage breastfeeding (yay!) by telling women they’ll totally lose sooo much weight if they do! (Huh?)

Interesting how they succeed in mocking your run-of-the-mill diet ...

By Courtney • 13 years ago

Guest Post: My Mother’s Womb

This is a guest post from educator and writer Dena Simmons. Her bio can be found after the jump. Trigger warning.

I started to bleed the same day I found out my mother has tumors in her uterus. I bleed each month, my body’s reminder that I am a woman, that some day I will bear children. This month, like every month for the past sixteen years of my menstruation, I allow blood to flow through my vagina; I allow another child-to-be to pass through me, but today, I bleed after learning my mother’s uterus has failed her. My mother bled for an entire year before she went to the doctor, before she learned that she must ...

This is a guest post from educator and writer Dena Simmons. Her bio can be found after the jump. Trigger warning.

I started to bleed the same day I found out my mother has tumors in her ...

By Courtney • 13 years ago

Feminist mothering advice

I have a bunch of amazing friends getting pregnant and giving birth these days (Jess!). I’ve never been a mother, so I feel at a bit of a loss of how to support my friends as they embark on this new stage, so I decided to ask a group of my favorite feminist moms the following question: What is the one thing no one ever told you about mothering that you wish they had?

Here are just a few of the awesome answers I received:

That you have an excuse to reprise the daily dance contests you had as a child (Beat It!) and get to watch Star Wars, Indiana Jones, and Goonies again.

I wish I had done this: In advance of ...

I have a bunch of amazing friends getting pregnant and giving birth these days (Jess!). I’ve never been a mother, so I feel at a bit of a loss of how to support my friends as they ...

By Rose • 13 years ago

Mothers’ needs play second fiddle to the needs of family and teammates

The New York Times has launched a series: “Mothers That Teammates and Families Both Need.” I was impressed that the first story in the series on mothers in the WNBA succeeded at presenting great facts and expert advice. On the first read, I was really excited about the possibility of women at the margins, mainly mothers of color, getting coverage. However, a project that explores the plight of mothers that prioritizes the needs of teammates and families over what moms need is a surefire fail, fail, fail and here’s why.

While the writer gets her investigative-journalism on and reveals that 11 moms play in the WNBA, she unfortunately goes on to frame these players’ decision to mother as something the WNBA ...

By Lori Adelman • 13 years ago

Lebron, Family Honor, and Yo Momma

Over the past few weeks, I’ve been following the Lebron James story with great interest. For those who don’t follow sports (or live under a rock), Lebron recently announced that he would be leaving the Cleveland Cavaliers to play for the Miami Heat, after much hype, speculation, conspiracy theories, and an hour-long ESPN special. That’s all fine and good. I’m not foolish enough to try to opine on such a still touchy subject in a public forum.
What I WILL talk about is the fact that for months, the critical backlash against Lebron has involved blatant, disrespectful, and anti-feminist slut-shaming of his mother based on rumors that she slept with Delonte West, another player on the ...