1st Edition
Refiguring Motherhood Beyond Biology
This book unpacks and interrogates dominant constructions of mothering, making use of interdisciplinary, ideological and theoretical perspectives to investigate how new rhetorics of mothering can expand the realm of maternal care-givers beyond the biological definitions of motherhood.
This diverse collection is at the cutting-edge of rhetoric, feminism, and motherhood studies, and the chapters challenge the confines of biological parenting as heteronormative within the neo-liberal nuclear family. The contributors examine, how despite the diversity of parental relationships, many are excluded by the understanding of mothers biologically tied to their children. The volume seeks to expose the underpinnings of biological primacy and argues that 21st-century families and familial circumstances are ill-served by biological ideology. Topics include Re-Imagining Queer Black Motherhood, Chicana Feminist approaches to reproductive justice, the commercialization and medicalization of infertility, and ableism and motherhood.
This is a unique and fascinating book suitable for students and scholars in gender studies, sexuality studies, communication studies, sociology, and cultural studies.
Introduction: Resisting Rhetorics of Mothering, Intensive Mothering, and Biological Determinism
Valerie Renegar and Kirsti Cole
Part 1: Intersections of Motherhood Figures Beyond Biology
1 Muslim Mothering & Divesting from Whiteness
Lamiyah Bahrainwala
2 SBF Seeking Motherhood: An Autoethnographic Journey Toward Pregnancy
Natasha R. Howard
3 Re-Imaging Queer Black Motherhood
Elizabeth Y. Whittington
4 Rhetorically Constructing Motherhood in Pregnancy Loss
Sarah Steimel
5 Comadrisma, Mamás, and Tías: An Intersectional Chicana Feminist Approach to Comunidad and Reproductive Justice
Sarah De Los Santos Upton and Leandra H. Hernandez
Part 2: Refiguring Media Representations of Motherhood Beyond Biology
6: Rae Lynn Schwartz-DuPre and Stacey Sowards
Donor Eggs and Sperm: Rhetorical Explanations of Parenthood in Children’s Literature
7: Catherine Bourland Ross and Bailey Barlow
Las No-Madres: The Commercialization and Medicalization of Infertility in Quién quiere ser madre
8: Mollie K. Murphy
The Limitations of (Privileged) Maternal Appeals: Sandra Steingraber’s Constructions of Mothering in a Toxic Environment
9 Ableism and Motherhood: Invisible Illness and Moral Implications of ‘Good’ Mothering
Elizabeth L. Spradley
10 Our Bodies, Our Minds, Ourselves: Women’s Mental Health and Postpartum Depression
Jennifer Rome Kruse
11 Spiritual Mothers: Evangelical Practices of Mothering in the 21st Century
Sarah Kornfield
Part 3: Refiguring the Rhetoric of Motherhood Beyond Biology
12 Are you my mother? Reconceptualizing Pregnancy and Motherhood through Narratives of Trans Men
Erika Thomas
13 When Caring About leads to Caring For: Dissociation, Biology, and the Domestic Sphere in Pro-Caregiving Advocacy
Rachel D. Davidson
14 #MotherofExiles: Gender and Race in Motherhood Appeals Evoking the Statue of Liberty to Protest Family Separation Policies
Heidi Hamilton
15 ‘Good’ Mothering and the Question of Migrant Mothers at the Border
Katherine J. Hampsten
16 Challenges to Neoliberal Parenting and The Rise of the Ideal Stepmother
Valerie Renegar and Kirsti Cole
17
Afterword
Sara Hayden and Jennifer Borda
Biography
Valerie Renegar is a Professor of Communication Studies at Southwestern University, and the holder of the Herman Brown Chair. Her research focuses on feminist rhetoric as well as the role of rhetoric in social change. Her work appears in several outlets including Hypatia, Women’s Studies in Communication, Communication Studies, Howard Journal of Communications, and the Western Journal of Communication as well as chapters in a number of edited collections.
Kirsti Cole is a Professor of Rhetoric, Composition, and Literature at Minnesota State University. She is the faculty chair of the Teaching Writing Graduate Certificate and Master’s of Communication and Composition programs. She has published articles in Women’s Studies in Communication, TCQ, Feminist Media Studies, College English, harlot, and thirdspace, as well as a number of chapters in edited collections. Her collection Feminist Challenges or Feminist Rhetorics was published in 2014. She has also edited the following collections with Holly Hassel: Surviving Sexism in the Academy: Feminist Strategies for Leadership (2017), Academic Labor beyond the College Classroom: Working for Our Values (2020), and Transformations: Change Work Across Writing Programs, Pedagogies, and Practices (2021).