Abstract
Motherhood is the subject of considerable discussion and review. We are all, as Rich has famously said, ‘of woman born’ (1977), and this is still the case at the current stage of technological development, although it may not be for ever. Yet, motherhood is subject both to assumptions that it is an identity that can be taken for granted — it is ‘natural’ so requires no further interrogation — and to a plethora of critiques through which meanings about what it means to be a mother are constructed. This chapter uses approaches that have been developed within cultural studies to look at the politics of representation and addresses some of the ways in which motherhood is represented, for example through discourses in popular culture.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
References
L. Althusser, Lenin and Philosophy and Other Essays (London: New Left Books, 1971).
R. Barthes, Mythologies (London: Cape, 1972).
U. Beck, Risk Society: Towards a New Modernity (London: Sage, 1992).
M. Foucault, The History of Sexuality; Volume I: An Introduction (Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1981).
The Guardian, 25 November 1998, Manchester.
S. Hall, ‘The work of representation’, in S. Hall (ed.), Representation: Cultural Representations and Signifying Practices (London: Sage/The Open University, 1997).
Having a Baby (London: IPC Magazines, 1998).
HMSO, Social Trends (London: HMSO, 2002).
A. Hochschild, ‘The commercial spirit of intimate life and the abduction of feminism: signs from women’s advice books’, Theory, Culture and Society, 11 (1994) 1–24.
L. Irigaray, ‘This sex which is not one’, in M. Whitford (ed.), The Irigaray Reader (Oxford: Blackwell, 1991).
E. A. Kaplan, Motherhood and Representation: The Mother in Popular Culture and Melodrama (London: Routledge, 1992).
S. Lawler, Mothering the Self, Mothers, Daughters, Subjects (London: Routledge, 2000).
E. McCracken, Decoding Women’s Magazines: From Mademoiselle to Ms (Basingstoke: Macmillan, 1993).
A. McRobbie, ‘More! new sexualities in girls’ and Women’s Magazines’, in J. Curran, D. Morely and V. Walkerdine (eds), Cultural Studies and Communications (London: Arnold, 1996).
A. McRobbie, ‘Pecs and Penises: the meaning of girlie culture’, in Soundings, 5 (Spring 1997) 157–166.
R. Petchesky, ‘Foetal images: the power of visual culture in the politics of reproduction’, in M. Stanworth (ed.), Reproductive Technologies: Gender, Motherhood and Medicine (Cambridge: Polity Press with Blackwell, 1987).
A. Rich, Of Woman Born: Motherhood as Experience and Institution (London: Virago, 1977).
F. De Saussure, Course in General Linguistics (London: Peter Owen, 1960).
She (London: JPC Magazines, December 1990).
She (London: JPC Magazines, December 1991).
She (London: JPC Magazines, February 1997).
She (London: JPC Magazines, July 2002).
D. L. Steinberg, Bodies in Glass (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1997).
The Times, 23rd May 1988, London.
M. Warner, Alone of All Her Sex: The Myth and the Cult of the Virgin Mary (London: Picador, 1985).
M. Warner, Managing Monsters: Six Myths of our Time, The Reith Lectures (London: Vintage, 1994).
C. White, Women’s Magazines1693–1968 (London: Michael Joseph, 1970).
R. Williams, Culture (Glasgow: Fontana, 1981).
J. Winship, Inside Women’s Magazines (London: Pandora, 1987).
K. Woodward, ‘Motherhood: meanings and myths’, in K. Woodward (ed.), Identity and Difference (London: Sage, 1997).
K. Woodward, ‘Up close and personal’, in T. Jordan and S. Pile (eds), Social Change (Oxford: Blackwell, 2002).
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Copyright information
© 2003 Palgrave Macmillan, a division of Macmillan Publishers Limited
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Woodward, K. (2003). Representations of Motherhood. In: Earle, S., Letherby, G. (eds) Gender, Identity & Reproduction. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230522930_2
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230522930_2
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London
Print ISBN: 978-1-349-50829-7
Online ISBN: 978-0-230-52293-0
eBook Packages: Palgrave Social & Cultural Studies CollectionSocial Sciences (R0)