Refiguring Motherhood Beyond Biology

<p>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. </p><p>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. </p><p>This is a unique and fascinating book suitable for students and scholars in gender studies, sexuality studies, communication studies, sociology, and cultural studies.</p> <p><em>List of Contributors </em></p><p><em>Acknowledgments</em></p><p>Introduction: Resisting Rhetorics of Mothering, Intensive Mothering, and Biological Determinism </p><p>VALERIE RENEGAR AND KIRSTI COLE</p><p><strong>PART I</strong></p><p><strong>Intersections of Motherhood Figures Beyond Biology</strong></p><p>1 Muslim Mothering and Divesting from Whiteness</p><p>LAMIYAH BAHRAINWALA</p><p>2 SBF Seeking Motherhood: An Autoethnographic Journey Toward Pregnancy</p><p>NATASHA R. HOWARD</p><p>3 Re-Imagining Queer Black Motherhood</p><p>ELIZABETH Y. WHITTINGTON</p><p>4 Rhetorically Constructing Motherhood in Pregnancy Loss</p><p>SARAH STEIMEL</p><p>5 Comadrisma, Mamás, and Tías: An Intersectional Chicana Feminist Approach to Comunidad and Reproductive Justice</p><p>SARAH DE LOS SANTOS UPTON AND LEANDRA H. HERNANDEZ</p><p><strong>PART II</strong></p><p><strong>Re</strong><strong>fi</strong><strong>guring Media Representations of Motherhood Beyond Biology</strong> </p><p>6 Donors and Disclosures: Rhetorical Explanations of Assisted Reproductive Technology and Parenthood in Children’s Literature</p><p>RAE LYNN SCHWARTZ-DUPRE AND STACEY K. SOWARDS</p><p>7 Las No-Madres: The Commercialization and Medicalization of Infertility in Quién quiere ser madre</p><p>CATHERINE BOURLAND ROSS AND BAILEY BARLOW</p><p>8 The Limitations of (Privileged) Maternal Appeals: Sandra Steingraber’s Constructions of Mothering in a Toxic Environment</p><p>MOLLIE K. MURPHY</p><p>9 Ableism and Motherhood: Invisible Illness and Moral Implications of “Good” Mothering</p><p>ELIZABETH L. SPRADLEY</p><p>10 “‘But This is Supposed to be the Happiest Time of my Life!’: The Neoliberal Turn in Women’s Discourses of Postpartum in Our Bodies, Ourselves”</p><p>JENNIFER ROME KRUSE</p><p>11 Spiritual Mothers: Evangelical Practices of Mothering in the 21st Century</p><p>SARAH KORNFIELD</p><p><strong>PART III</strong></p><p><strong>Re</strong><strong>figuring the Rhetoric of Motherhood Beyond Biology</strong></p><p>12 Reconceptualizing “Maternity” to Recognize Men: Images of Pregnant Trans Men as Visual Argument</p><p>ERIKA M. THOMAS</p><p>13 A Visual Definition of Caregiving: Caring About, Caring for, and the Feminization of Care</p><p>RACHEL D. DAVIDSON AND LARA C. STACHE</p><p>14 #MotherofExiles: Gender and Race in Motherhood Appeals to Protest Family Separation Policies</p><p>HEIDI HAMILTON</p><p>15 “Good” Mothering and the Question of Migrant Mothers at the Border</p><p>KATHERINE J. HAMPSTEN</p><p>16 Challenges to Neoliberal Parenting and the Rise of the Ideal Stepmother</p><p>VALERIE RENEGAR AND KIRSTI COLE</p><p>Afterword</p><p>SARA HAYDEN AND JENNIFER L. BORDA</p><p><em>Index</em></p>