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Normalizing Discourses of Upward Mobility: Working Class Roots, Motherhood, and Idealized White Femininity A Dissertation SUBMITTED TO THE FACULTY OF UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA BY Colleen H. Clements IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY Timothy J. Lensmire, Adviser September 2015 © Colleen H. Clements 2015 NORMALIZING DISCOURSES OF UPWARD MOBILITY Acknowledgements This project would not have been possible without the help of many, some of whom I will acknowledge here, and some of whom I will undoubtedly fail to include, but here goes: To my committee members, James Bequette, Mary (Fong) Hermes, Bic Ngo, and Mark Vagle. Thank you all for the unique role you played in getting me here. To Jim, for supporting the artist in me; to Fong, for helping me to see new ways of doing things; to Bic, for helping me transition to being a CaT; and to Mark, for encouraging me to surround myself with supportive mentors. Your guidance and encouragement have been invaluable. To my advisor, Dr. Timothy Lensmire, for embodying the wise (and sometimes raucous) voice in my head, always reminding me of what I already knew: to trust myself, to trust in the worth of scratching at these stories, and for teaching me that the act of writing is a method of inquiry. To Gail Quinn, Erin Stutelberg, and Lani Shapiro, for assisting me in finding participants for my study. Without you, I would not have found these amazing stories. To Angela Coffee and Erin Stutelberg, for writing partnerships and friendships, much- needed laughing and crying, and sharing of dubious-looking hotel rooms and hot tubs. To the Hayward Collective, for making me part of a community of badass women, and especially to Erin Stutelberg, Angela Coffee, and Erin Dyke for standing quietly under the stars at Fong’s house in the woods. To Kimberly Clark, for invaluable help at the library. To many other C&I PhD students, for fearlessly leading the way: Rick Lybeck, Heidi Jo Jones, Shannon McManimon, Sam Tanner, and Jehanne Beaton; and to the FYC faculty and students, for being with me from the beginning. To the staff in the C&I department office, for always being there to answer my many questions. I would have been lost without you. To my partner, Dave, for everything. And finally to my family, for your unending patience, love, and curiosity, without which, this work would have been possible. i NORMALIZING DISCOURSES OF UPWARD MOBILITY Dedication This dissertation is dedicated to my family. ii NORMALIZING DISCOURSES OF UPWARD MOBILITY Abstract Background/Context: Upward mobility has been tied to racialization of identity in the U.S. since its inception. According to Thandeka, for white people, social class is race, and the way to become “whiter” was (and is) through upward mobility. This narrative of upward mobility is perpetrated in part through normalizing cultural discourses, in which upward mobility is constructed as smooth and leading to unquestionably desirable outcomes. These discourses also hold particular interest for mothers in the U.S., who are often in the position of imagining and helping to create the future trajectories of their children. Focus of the Study: This study was an inquiry of the ways in which white mothers from working class backgrounds narrated their experiences with upward mobility. I was interested in the ways in which normalizing cultural narratives of upward mobility may infiltrate the narratives the participants took up in their daily lives. In addition, I was interested in the ways in which these narrations influenced their identities in the culturally constructed role of “mother,” as a feature of idealized white femininity. Research Design: Through the use of the arts-based methodology of dramatization and post-intentional phenomenological interview methods, I produced a script based on the narratives of three focal participants. This script was also used in the analysis process, to illuminate the ways in which the narratives of the mothers in the study contained moments of both adherence to normalizing cultural discourses and ruptures with those normalizing discourses. Conclusions: The narratives of the participants in this study revealed complicated stories of upward mobility that did not match the smooth trajectory of the American Dream. The ways in which the narratives of the participants differed from the normalizing narratives of upward mobility varied, depending on personal experience. The narratives contained multiple stories of tension and loss, creating three portraits of conflicted identity. iii NORMALIZING DISCOURSES OF UPWARD MOBILITY Table of Contents Prologue 1 Chapter One: Introduction 2 Chapter Two: A Review of the Literature 20 Chapter Three: The Study 42 Chapter Four: Analysis Part One: Themes 73 Chapter Five: Analysis Part Two: The Script 96 Chapter Six: Analysis Part Three: The Focal Stories 129 Chapter Seven: Conclusion 157 References 170 Appendix A 175 iv NORMALIZING DISCOURSES OF UPWARD MOBILITY “…for motherhood is a career in conformity from which no amount of subterfuge can liberate the soul without violence….” ~Rachel Cusk, A Life’s Work: On Becoming a Mother “I do think that women could make politics irrelevant, by a kind of spontaneous cooperative action, the like of which we have never seen, which so far from people's ideas of state structure and viable social structure, that seems to them like total anarchy, and what it really is, is very subtle forms of interrelation, which do not follow a sort of hierarchical pattern, which is fundamentally patriarchal.” ~Germaine Greer, from Universal Mother, by Sinead O’Connor 1 NORMALIZING DISCOURSES OF UPWARD MOBILITY Chapter One: Introduction Becoming a mother has changed me. The way I have made sense of this change is in part related to the change in my material existence, but also through the taking on of the social role of mother. My perception of this change is that it has taken multiple forms and has been both good and not so good. In many ways, I (think I) became more selfless, seeing things from multiple perspectives and thinking in a much more long-term way. I discovered what it is to be more openly loving, having learned that love is not something that exists in limited quantities, but can expand outward to the unknowable reaches of my imagination, as I conjure the places my children might someday go. I became more aware of time passing, more “present,” and more grateful. I was frequently filled with a sort of simple wonder at the world, as I saw things anew through the eyes of my children. Even as I learned (again) to value the seemingly unremarkable moments in life, I became concerned about the world and its goings-on in a deeper way. There were, however, other changes that were more unsettling. I became afraid of things I had never feared before I became a mother. I was less comfortable with risk, and more interested in “security,” a concept I had previously dismissed as meaningless and dangerous in an insecure world. Instead of seeing my life as something that I could shape and mold to my own liking, I began to feel the pressure of creating stability for the little lives I had brought into the world. It produced a moment of crisis—an “identity crisis,” if you will. It was a moment of cognitive dissonance that I did not see coming, having anticipated most of my life that I would someday step into the role of mother. 2 NORMALIZING DISCOURSES OF UPWARD MOBILITY It is with the juxtaposition of these feelings in mind, then, that I chose the quotes with which I open this dissertation. I have felt a sense of conformity since becoming a mother unlike any other I have experienced in my life. I have also felt moved to act in the world in ways that were new to me; some might say political ways, since I have become a mother. This juxtaposition of feelings has at times produced tensions in me, and these tensions were part of what drove me to undertake this study. Background of the Problem When my eldest son started preschool, and our intimate and cozy world expanded to include more social realms, my feelings about myself as a mother became even more complicated. I began to notice a subtle shift in my perceptions about myself as a mother, in part because I felt compelled to compare myself to these other mothers I was meeting at the school. As I talked with them, I realized that our conversations were a way of putting our mothering practices under scrutiny. These conversations left me wondering if I should be enrolling my son in more activities, buying his clothes from certain stores, even getting his haircut at particular places. None of this had ever mattered to me before, in fact my previous, childless self would have scoffed at such wonderings, and yet these topics dominated the conversation every morning as we waited for the doors of the preschool classroom to open. I came to dread these conversations. Walking the few short blocks to school with my son was always an opportunity for the two of us to engage in exploratory delight and meandering conversation. Each day brought new discovery, no matter how small, as we 3 NORMALIZING DISCOURSES OF UPWARD MOBILITY wended our way through our city neighborhood, across one busy street, past the house with the barking dog, and finally around the corner to the school. The sight of the school across the parking lot caused me to take a deep breath, as a pit formed in my stomach, knowing as I did that I would soon be submitting myself to the continued self-scrutiny of endless comparison.

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