Mums, Dummies and ‘Dirty Dids’: The Dummy as a Symbolic Representation of Mothering?

Whitmarsh, Judy

doi:10.1111/j.1099-0860.2007.00082.x

Cited by 14 publications

(14 citation statements)

References 31 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…This portrayal supports the view of commentators who have argued that mothering and health care have become conflated and call the twentieth century the age of medicalized parenting wherein parenting has come to be described as a skilled and scientific occupation (Lee, 2008). In this context mothering has become coupled with the acceptance of the bio-medical paradigm (Whitmarsh, 2008). Furedi (2008) observes an increasing "diseasing of childhood" wherein "childhood experience is seen as potentially dangerous even life-threatening" (2008, p. 13).…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 68%

Representations of Autism in US Magazines for Women in Comparison to the General Audience

Clarke¹

2012

Journal of Children and Media

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

This paper investigates the portrayal of autism in magazines directed toward two different audiences in English-speaking North America. It compares answers to three questions: What is autism? What is said to cause it? What can and should be done about it? in articles in magazines whose audience is primarily female with magazines for general interest (male and female) audiences. The findings suggest that autism is framed in contrasting ways in the two different types of magazines. In the general interest magazines, autism is encapsulated in stereotypical discourses valuing science, numbers, genetic and other biological research, and objectivity. In the magazines for women, autism is described as a tragedy, usually identified first by heartbroken mothers who then go on to "move heaven and earth" to fight for their child and "normality". Neither magazine focuses on the perspective of the person diagnosed with autism nor reflects the debates about whether or not ASD is necessarily a problem or just a difference.

show abstract

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 68%

Representations of Autism in US Magazines for Women in Comparison to the General Audience

Clarke¹

2012

Journal of Children and Media

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…The late twentieth century has been described as the age of medicalized parenting because parenting has come to be thought of as a skilled and scientific occupation (Foss 2010;Lee 2008;Richman and Skidmore 2000). Moreover, good and intensive mothering has been associated with the adoption of the biomedical paradigm (Whitmarsh 2008).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Tracking governance: advice to mothers about managing the behaviour of their children in a leading Canadian women’s magazine during two disease regimes

Clarke

2013

Critical Public Health

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

This paper explores how advice to mothers about raising healthy children differs in two distinct disease regimes as portrayed in articles in the preeminent Canadian women's magazine Chatelaine about 50 years apart, 1928-1944 and 1990-2012. The paper compares intensive mothering, medicalization and the perception of risk. It suggests that both intensive mothering and medicalization are continuous from time period to time period (although the content of both mothering and medicalization differ in the two periods). Medicalization focused on the physical well-being and emphasized the importance of the routinized behaviours designed for conformity in the early period. In the latter period, there is a greater focus on individuality of children and their emotional well-being. This is linked to the rise of the discourses of the psy professions. With respect to risk, however, the paper documents an important change in the expansion of the degree to which life is considered risky. The substantive, theoretical and practical consequences of the findings are discussed.

show abstract

“…Much behaviours of children have come to be understood within medicalization discourses and it is not surprising that parenting, too, has come to be described as an expert and even scientific occupation (Richman & Skidmore 2000). In consequence, acting as a good mother has become linked to intensively mothering in congruence with the biomedical paradigm (Hays 1996; Whitmarsh 2008). Intensive mothering involves continuous labour that is intensive, expensive and emotionally absorbing.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Surplus suffering: the search for help when a child has mental‐health issues

Clarke

2012

Child & Family Social Work

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Social theorists have demonstrated the growth in dominance of two central discourses for understanding the ways that children's mental‐health issues are understood today –medicalization and intensive mothering. In this context, this paper reports on a qualitative interview‐based study of 16 mothers whose children had received a diagnosis with one or more mental‐health or developmental issues such as Tourette's, bipolar, anxiety, depression, autism or attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. It is based on the retrospective accounts of mothers given during interviews, from the time when they noticed what they thought to be unusual behaviours and decided to try to normalize and accommodate to their children's behaviours and then to the various steps they took to seek help. The paper begins with a description of the sorts of problems that mothers noticed. It then moves to the strategies mothers then took to cope, manage and socialize their children. When these failed, mothers sought professional assistance with understanding, remediation and/or a diagnosis for the child(ren). Mothers described uncertainty, confusion and contradictions as they unremittingly sought help. This process may be called surplus suffering. The relevance of the theoretical issues is then reconsidered along with the substantive and practical consequences of the findings.

show abstract

Mums, Dummies and ‘Dirty Dids’: The Dummy as a Symbolic Representation of Mothering?

Cited by 14 publications

References 31 publications

Representations of Autism in US Magazines for Women in Comparison to the General Audience

Representations of Autism in US Magazines for Women in Comparison to the General Audience

Tracking governance: advice to mothers about managing the behaviour of their children in a leading Canadian women’s magazine during two disease regimes

Surplus suffering: the search for help when a child has mental‐health issues

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About