Motherhood, markets and consumption : the making of mothers in contemporary western cultures /

This collection of 18 theoretically dense essays examines the variety of ways in which modern motherhood is constructed today. Edited by UK academics, the book focuses primarily on mothers in Great Britain and western Europe, though one intriguing essay by Amy Traver (Queensborough Community College, CUNY) looks at the rise of American adoption of Chinese infants and how American mothers then mediate Chinese culture for their adopted children now growing up in America. With an emphasis on the marketing of social expectations of what construes a "good" mother, the numerous contributors address the process in multiple ways. From the representation of motherhood in the movies to advertisements of food products, from the prenatal experience to the onset of the empty nest, this work examines the ways in which motherhood as an identity is constructed and mediated by women as they actually experience it. The impact of class, race, and national identity is addressed by several contributors; certainly, gender as a construct is an overarching theme. Summing Up: Recommended. Upper-division undergraduate through professional audiences. K. B. Nutter Sophia Smith Collection, Smith College