Mother of invention
Subtitle: how our mothers influenced us as feminist academics and activists
By: edited by Vanessa Reimer and Sarah Sahagian
Publisher: Demeter Press
Published: 2013
Place of publication: Bradford, Ontario
Language: eng
Number of pages: 197
ISBN-13: 9781927335178
Copyright date: 2013
Subjects: Mothers and daughters; Motherhood; Mothers; Family relationships; Feminists; Feminist theory
Description: An interdisciplinary collection that combines feminist theory with life writing to explore the diverse ways that mothers, whether or not they themselves identity as "feminist," inspire feminist consciousness in their daughters and sons. It features creative and scholarly contributions from feminist academics, activists, writers and artists from different educational backgrounds, places and walks of life. While not an exclusive celebration of maternal relations, this collection provides an antidote to matrophobia and mother-blaming by critically exploring and affirming the myriad of challenges and complexities that constitute motherwork. It explores how the mothering of feminist daughters and sons intersects with issues of gender, sexuality, disability, ethnicity, racialization, citizenship, religion, economic class, education, and socio-historical location. Collectively these essays explore the centrality of intergenerational matrilineal narratives in shaping feminist consciousness, they deconstruct dominant ideologies of patriarchal motherhood and womanhood, and they challenge the notion that there is a formulaic way to raise feminist daughters and sons, or a singular "correct" way to engage in feminist maternal practice.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references.
Table of contents: title: Introduction : the invention of our book / Vanessa Reimer and Sarah Sahagian; title: the alarm / Tracy Royce; title: Impressions of my mother : on willfulness and passionate scholarship / Rachel O'Neill; title: Feminism as practice : valuing a feminist motherline in the age of neo-liberalism / Melinda Vandenbeld Giles; title: "Tell them you're a Mexican," and other motherly advice / Karleen Pendleton Jiménez; title: The bungalow mystery : me, my mother, and Nancy Drew / Donna Sharkey; title: Mothering, paid work and activism : complementary dimensions of a common vocation / Rebecca Jaremko Bromwich; title: It's about 1000 miles from Oaxaca, Mexico to San Antonio, Texas and about 2000 miles from California to Indiana / Angelica Duran; title: A life not lost / Allison Weir; title: A matrilineal narrative : my Chinese mother and I / Evelyn Chan; title: M/Aligning mother : queering & feminist-ing matroreform / Joani Mortenson; title: Carrying generational baggage : how crises of physical and mental health shaped me as a feministist psychologist / Diana Milillo; title: "The dish ran away with the spoon" : the unexpected and enduring promise of my mother's kitchen teachings / Deborah Schnitzer; title: Matriarchal mothering of a first-generation feministist academic / Phylissa Smith Deroze; title: I love you, Mom : one daughter's journey toward appreciating her mother with the assistance of maternal theory / Sarah Sahagian; title: A (Christian) feminist's thought on religious mothering, sexual purity, and Pat RobertsonVanessassa Reimer; title: Lentils in the ashes : excavating the fragments of ancestral feminism / Janice Okoomian; title: Happy birthday Mom! / Gery Lee Pelletier.