Motherdom
Breaking Free of Bad Science and Good Mother Myths
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- $9.99
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- $9.99
Publisher Description
Blaming, shaming and flimsy evidence: welcome to the ugly world of Good Mother myths
When Alex Bollen had her first baby, the fear of being a bad mother made her guilty and anxious. A researcher with twenty years’ experience, she went looking for answers. To her surprise the studies she looked at were exaggerated and misrepresented in the media, forming the foundation for what she calls Good Mother myths. These myths are an assortment of narratives, ideologies and stereotypes, deployed to censure mothers and blame them for every societal ill.
Incensed by the way bad science is used to shame mothers, Alex Bollen decided to set the record straight. With meticulous research and keen insight, Motherdom exposes both the shaky science and unjustified prescriptions about how mothers should ‘naturally’ behave. Competing visions of birth – ‘natural’ versus ‘medical’ – mean women can be criticised whatever happens, raising the odds that birth will be a damaging, even deadly, experience. Mothers are judged and belittled whether they breast- or bottle-feed their babies. Bogus claims about brain development and dodgy attachment theories mean that whatever mothers do, it is never enough.
This has to stop. We must replace Good Mother myths with a realistic approach to parenting. Alex Bollen proposes ‘motherdom’, a more expansive conception of motherhood, which values and respects the different ways people raise their children. Instead of finding fault with mothers, Motherdom shifts our focus to the relationships and resources children need to flourish.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
The "ideologies and stereotypes" that define modern motherhood mainly serve to cast blame on mothers, writes Bollen, a U.K.-based postnatal practitioner, in this intriguing debut. Bollen posits that these "Good Mother Myths" are underpinned by two factors: the first is bad science (based on bad assumptions) that overstates findings in order to generate sensational headlines; the second is a cultural tendency to associate women with nature. Bollen breaks down what happens when these two tenets interact, showing how they create contradictions that mean whichever choice a mother makes is judged by society as the wrong one (with neither choice in fact being particularly based on well-founded guidance). For example, she cites how women are equally "vilified" for cesarean sections and home births, or for breastfeeding or formula-feeding, even though all can be necessary options depending on the circumstances. Bollen also criticizes attachment parenting, arguing that it overemphasize mothers' abilities to shape their children's emotional landscape. As a corrective to such mother-blaming, Bollen calls for a slew of systemic changes that prioritize new mothers' health and access to fact-based science; she also suggests adopting a concept called "motherdom"—"an expansive conception of motherhood" that will "depose" the current "institution." While this concept feels fairly nebulous, the book is still worthwhile for Bollen's fascinating investigations into the origins of a slew of supposedly scientific parenting advice. It's a satisfying revolt against holier-than-thou moralizing around mothers.
