DOCSLIB.ORG

Maternal Feminism Discussion

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Maternal Feminism Discussion H-Women Maternal Feminism Discussion Page published by Kolt Ewing on Thursday, June 12, 2014 Maternal Feminism Discussion July, August 1996 Original Query for Info from Heather L. Garretthgarrett@yorku.ca 15 July 1996 I am revising a paper for publication and have been asked to include a more critical discussion of maternal feminism that reflects the kinds of questions feminist historians have posed regarding this idea. In this paper I am looking at the Needlework Guild of Canada. This is a voluntary organization that originated in England and then emerged in Canada in 1892. The women in this group collected clothing and goods to meet the needs of state-operated orphanages, hospitals, homes, and charities. Does anyone know of any work, preferably Canadian, with a contemporary discussion of maternal feminism which goes beyond the class critique and/or identifies the debates surrounding the use of this concept? I would appreciate any sources you could suggest, as I am unfamiliar with this literature. [Editor Note: For bibliography on Maternal Feminism, see bibliography section on H-Women home page at http://h-net2.msu.edu/~women/bibs Responses: >From Eileen Boris ecb4d@faraday.clas.virginia.edu 17 July 1996 ...The question remains, though, is maternal feminism the proper term? Is maternalism feminism? Is mother-talk strategy, discourse, or political position? >From Karen Offen kmoffen@leland.Stanford.edu 17 July 1996 ...But first, it would be good to know more about the work of your Needlework Guild and the organization's perspective. Was there a "feminist" component of any kind, i.e. a feminist critique of prevailing male-female relations in society, or is the group strictly philanthropic in the charitable sense? >From Heather L. Garrett hgarrett@yorku.ca 18 July 1996 Re: Karen Offen's question: The group was philanthropic rather than feminist. I am arguing that the Citation: Kolt Ewing. Maternal Feminism Discussion. H-Women. 07-15-2015. https://networks.h-net.org/node/24029/pages/31324/maternal-feminism-discussion Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License. 1 H-Women group provided the women with opportunities to meet others, learn new things they may not have learned in the home. I do not argue that the women were trying to break down class barriers or forms of patriarchal powers. Re: Eileen Borris' question: If maternal feminism is not the term, my problem is that I do not know what the proper term is. >From Eileen Borris ecb4d@faraday.clas.virginia.edu 22 July 1996 On the question of what term to use for women who base philanthropic work on their identities as mothers and on the aid of mothers and children, why not call them feminists? Not all activist women are feminists. Why not just call them maternalists? or philanthropists? or reinforcers of class (race, ethnic, etc) hegemony? What did they call themselves? What did observers at the time call them? >From Don Soucy (CSPACE) dsoucy@unb.ca 22 July 1996 >Re: Eileen Borris' question: If maternal feminism is not the term my problem is that I do not >know what the proper term is. Any reactions to the term "municipal housekeeping"? >From Debra Michals NYU History 29 July 1996 I have to say I agree with Eileen Borris about using another term. Maternal feminism reminds me of domestic feminism--and in either case it is an uncomfortable blending of terms. Phyllis Schlafly in the 1970s used similar arguments against feminism and the ERA, nothing that women's empowerment came from their traditional roles broadly conceived as wife and mother; narrowly conceived via their power to reproduce. Schlafly tried to label this "the power of positive woman" (she wrote a book of the same title), but I would hardly call her a feminist in any Western sense of the word (and context is important, after all). The history of feminism or of women's activism in any public sense has in fact always been as much a debate among women about the source of female power--feminists, I would argue via the history of second wave feminism and to some degree its advocates all the way back to the 19th century, has in some way or another been about self-determination (as human beings, as political citizens, etc.) Traditionalists, like those you want to call maternal feminists, may agitate publicly, may be involved in movements for betterment or social change, but they do so from within social prescriptions about women's roles and nature. Therefore, while it may be fine to call them social activists, moral/social purity crusaders, it is hardly ok to use the word feminism to describe them. They are not about letting women decide for themselves individually what shape their lives should take but rather rely on prescribed roles as the source of their authority. One caveat: many of these women, typically, find such social work/activism transformative--that is, once publicly active, they cannot fully return to the very prescriptions that enabled their work in the first place. If you look at them after, then you may indeed be able to find some early stage feminism taking shape in their lives. Either way, though, I am uncomfortable with projecting back onto a group a term they would never have used to describe themselves or what they thought they were doing. Good luck and regards. Citation: Kolt Ewing. Maternal Feminism Discussion. H-Women. 07-15-2015. https://networks.h-net.org/node/24029/pages/31324/maternal-feminism-discussion Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License. 2 H-Women >From Sue Schrems schrems@worldnet.att.net 29 July 1996 The discussion on defining Feminism has confused me about my own research on conservative women in the 1920s. For instance, what term do we use for women who used the political process to fight for issues that covered a broad spectrum of women's concerns? Many of their concerns were maternal, such as the child-labor amendment, care of orphans, the Sheppard-Towner Bill, continuation of the children's bureau, the creation of a women's bureau in the Department of Labor, the establishment of a federal department of education, etc. In Oklahoma, after the legislature passed women's' suffrage in 1918, women became politically active and by 1920 elected women to the state senate and house, and sent the second woman to the United States Congress. After women were elected to state and national office, women's organizations in Oklahoma, from the National Women's Party, to the Legislative Council, to the DAR and the LWV, lobbied for legislation that concerned women and children. So, would we classify these women, as we do Alice Paul, as feminist, or would they fall in line with those women we call domestic or maternal feminists? >From Jeanette Keith keith@planetx.bloomu.edu 31 July 1996 To Sue Schrem' inquiry...Why not just "activists?" If we call any woman who is politically active in behalf of what she defines as a women's issue a feminist, then the word loses meaning. >From Heather L. Garrett hgarrett@yorku.ca 31 July 1996 In my search for the debates surrounding the use of maternal feminism, I have come across Naomi Black's (1989) Social Feminism. In this book in chapters on defining feminism and categorizing feminism, she distinguishes between social feminism and equity feminism. She discusses exactly what you describe re: the vote and the aftermath once the vote passed. She would consider maternal and domestic feminists to be social feminists. I would also like to take this opportunity to thank everyone who responded to my query re: maternal feminism. I have learned a lot from the discussion and now am a little more critical of the term. >From Cynthia Harrison harrison@gwis2.circ.gwu.edu 31 July 1996 It is my view that we reserve the term "feminism" to refer to the post-1966 phenomenon, which was the first women's movement to assert that women's biology did not *necessarily* bind her to a special role with respect to children. (Even Charlotte Perkins Gilman assumed that some women would be doing childcare --just not her.) It's hard enough to distinguish among all the modern variations of the term without taking on the burden of re-labeling and then offering new explanations for the label for groups who would never have used such a label for themselves. Even for the National Woman's Party, feminism meant something different from its contemporary meaning--it was much narrower in significant ways and didn't really challenge the nexus between women and childcare. The question is why we want to use a label if it confuses rather than illuminates. If we describe activists on behalf of women with a specific term that refers to their specific brand of activism (e.g. "advocates of protective labor laws," versus "E.R.A. proponents"), we don't get into this fix. Such a strategy obviously does not preclude our discussing in other contexts what "feminism" really means Citation: Kolt Ewing. Maternal Feminism Discussion. H-Women. 07-15-2015. https://networks.h-net.org/node/24029/pages/31324/maternal-feminism-discussion Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License. 3 H-Women and whether an older ideology can rightly be described in that way (although I do think that such discussions can easily lapse into anachronism). >From Karen Offen kmoffen@leland.standford.edu 02 Aug 1996 Apropos Cynthia Harrison's suggestion that we "reserve the term 'feminism' to refer to the post-1966 phenomenon...", I absolutely disagree.
Load more
Loading...
Loading...
Loading...
Loading...
Loading...

2 pages remaining, click to load more.

Recommended publications
  • A Third Wave Feminist Re-Reading of Anne of Green Gables Maria Virokannas University of Tampere English
    The Complex Anne-Grrrl: A Third Wave Feminist Re-reading of Anne of Green Gables Maria Virokannas University of Tampere English Philology School of Modern Languages and Translation Studies Tampereen yliopisto Englantilainen filologia Kieli- ja käännöstieteenlaitos Virokannas, Maria: The Complex Anne-Grrrl: A Third Wave Feminist Re-reading of Anne of Green Gables Pro gradu -tutkielma, 66 sivua + lähdeluettelo Syksy 2011 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Tämän pro gradu -tutkielman tavoitteena oli selvittää voidaanko Lucy Maud Montgomeryn 1908 ilmestyneestä romaanista Anne of Green Gables löytää kolmannen aallon feminismin piirteitä. Erityisesti tutkin löytyykö romaanista piirteitä ristiriitaisuudesta ja sen omaksumisesta ja individualismin ideologiasta, feministisestä ja positiivisesta äitiydestä sekä konventionaalisen naisellisuuden etuoikeuttamisesta. Tutkielmani teoreettinen kehys muodostuu feministisestä kirjallisuuden tutkimuksesta, painottuen kolmannen aallon feministiseen teoriaan. Erityisesti feminististä äitiyttä tutkittaessa tutkielman kulmakivenä on Adrienne Richin teoria äitiydestä, jota Andrea O'Reilly on kehittänyt. Tämän teorian mukaan äitiys on toisaalta miesten määrittelemä ja kontrolloima, naista alistava instituutio patriarkaalisessa yhteiskunnassa, toisaalta naisten määrittelemä ja naiskeskeinen positiivinen elämys, joka potentiaalisesti voimauttaa naisia. Kolmannen aallon feminismi korostaa eroja naisten välillä ja naisissa itsessään,
    [Show full text]
  • New Woman, New World: Maternal Feminism and the New Imperialism in the White Settler Colonies
    Women’s Studies International Forum, Vol. 22, No. 2, pp. 175–184, 1999 Copyright © 1999 Elsevier Science Ltd Pergamon Printed in the USA. All rights reserved 0277-5395/99 $–see front matter PII S0277-5395(99)00005-9 NEW WOMAN, NEW WORLD: MATERNAL FEMINISM AND THE NEW IMPERIALISM IN THE WHITE SETTLER COLONIES Cecily Devereux Department of English, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta, T6G 2E5 Canada Synopsis — The New Woman, the figure of feminist rebellion who emerged in 1880s and 1890s in En- glish fiction and social commentary, became the focus of a good deal of anxious polemic. In the context of the massive wave of expansionism during these years of the Second British Empire, the New Woman—and feminism, as it appeared to undermine woman’s reproductive “duty”—came to be seen as a sign of imperial decline. It was in response to this view that suffragism undertook to transform the New Woman into the feminist image of the woman as “mother of the race.” In the white settler colo- nies, this image held a particular iconic value, since both the imperial mother and the “virgin” territories of the New World were configured as the last hope for the Empire. This article traces the analogy of New Woman and New World, and discusses how Anglo-colonial fictions of woman suffrage re-pre- sented the question of white women’s role in the progress of nation and Empire. © 1999 Elsevier Sci- ence Ltd. All rights reserved. The New Woman, the figure of feminist rebel- British Empire rode in the final decades of the lion who emerged in the 1880s and 1890s in 19th century.
    [Show full text]
  • Decentering Agency in Feminist Theory: Recuperating the Family As a Social Project☆
    Women's Studies International Forum 35 (2012) 153–165 Contents lists available at SciVerse ScienceDirect Women's Studies International Forum journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/wsif Decentering agency in feminist theory: Recuperating the family as a social project☆ Amy Borovoy a, Kristen Ghodsee b,⁎ a East Asian Studies Department, Princeton University, 211 Jones Hall, Princeton, NJ 08544–1008, USA b Gender and Women's Studies, Bowdoin College, 7100 College Station, Brunswick, ME 04011, USA article info Synopsis Available online 21 April 2012 Ethnographic investigations demonstrate that there are many cultures in which women relin- quish rights for broader social goods and protections, which are equally acceptable, if not more desirable, to women. These include Western European social democracies, Eastern European post socialist nations, and the East Asian industrialized nations. Exploring these gender politics provides a powerful window into how the liberal emphasis on “choice” captures only one nar- row aspect of what is at stake for women in issues such as feminist debates about domesticity and the politics of abortion and family planning. In this article we draw on Japan and Bulgaria as our case studies, and we historicize the brand of social feminism that we are discussing, locating it in the mission to incorporate women into national agendas during the interwar pe- riod in many locations throughout the industrialized world as well as in the diverse mandates of early socialist feminism in the United States. We argue that “social feminism” can help sharpen the critiques of liberal feminism mobilized by anthropologists under the banner of “cultural relativism.” © 2012 Elsevier Ltd.
    [Show full text]
  • Q:\Research Files\Research Papers\Carrol03(Format).Wpd
    Are U.S. Women State Legislators Accountable to Women? The Complementary Roles of Feminist Identity and Women’s Organizations Susan J. Carroll Rutgers University Paper prepared for presentation at the Gender and Social Capital Conference, St. John’s College, University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Manitoba, May 2-3, 2003 Numerous scholars have argued that the increased numerical representation of women among legislators is likely to lead to increased substantive representation of women, and a number of studies have presented evidence suggesting a strong relationship between the presence of women legislators and attention to women’s issues within legislative bodies (e.g., Dodson and Carroll 1991; Thomas 1994; Carroll 1994; Carroll 2001; Saint-Germain 1989). While we have considerable evidence that women legislators give greater priority to women’s issues than their male colleagues, we know less about why they do so. What is the process underlying the substantive representation of women by women legislators? Why does the representation of women by women legislators happen? This paper examines these questions with particular attention to the role of women’s organizations and networks. Anne Phillips has argued that the most troubling question surrounding the political representation of women is the question of accountability (1995, 56). Observing that “Representation depends on the continuing relationship between representatives and the represented ” (1995, 82), Phillips concludes “there is no obvious way of establishing strict accountability to women as a group” (1995, 83). Thus, for Phillips, “Changing the gender composition of elected assemblies is largely an enabling condition... but it cannot present itself as a guarantee [of greater substantive representation for women]” (1995, 83).
    [Show full text]
  • The Power of Place: Structure, Culture, and Continuities in U.S. Women's Movements
    The Power of Place: Structure, Culture, and Continuities in U.S. Women's Movements By Laura K. Nelson A dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Sociology in the Graduate Division of the University of California, Berkeley Committee in charge: Professor Kim Voss, Chair Professor Raka Ray Professor Robin Einhorn Fall 2014 Copyright 2014 by Laura K. Nelson 1 Abstract The Power of Place: Structure, Culture, and Continuities in U.S. Women's Movements by Laura K. Nelson Doctor of Philosophy in Sociology University of California, Berkeley Professor Kim Voss, Chair This dissertation challenges the widely accepted historical accounts of women's movements in the United States. Second-wave feminism, claim historians, was unique because of its development of radical feminism, defined by its insistence on changing consciousness, its focus on women being oppressed as a sex-class, and its efforts to emphasize the political nature of personal problems. I show that these features of second-wave radical feminism were not in fact unique but existed in almost identical forms during the first wave. Moreover, within each wave of feminism there were debates about the best way to fight women's oppression. As radical feminists were arguing that men as a sex-class oppress women as a sex-class, other feminists were claiming that the social system, not men, is to blame. This debate existed in both the first and second waves. Importantly, in both the first and the second wave there was a geographical dimension to these debates: women and organizations in Chicago argued that the social system was to blame while women and organizations in New York City argued that men were to blame.
    [Show full text]
  • In Search of Equality for Women: from Suffrage to Civil Rights
    Georgetown University Law Center Scholarship @ GEORGETOWN LAW 2021 In Search of Equality for Women: From Suffrage to Civil Rights Nan D. Hunter Georgetown University Law Center, ndh5@law.georgetown.edu This paper can be downloaded free of charge from: https://scholarship.law.georgetown.edu/facpub/2390 https://ssrn.com/abstract=3873451 Duquesne Law Review, Vol. 59, 125-166. This open-access article is brought to you by the Georgetown Law Library. Posted with permission of the author. Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarship.law.georgetown.edu/facpub Part of the Civil Rights and Discrimination Commons, Law and Gender Commons, Law and Race Commons, and the Sexuality and the Law Commons In Search of Equality for Women: From Suffrage to Civil Rights Nan D. Hunter* ABSTRACT This article analyzes women’s rights advocacy and its impact on evolutions in the meaning of gender equality during the period from the achievement of suffrage in 1920 until the 1964 Civil Rights Act. The primary lesson is that one cannot separate the conceptualiza- tion of equality or the jurisprudential philosophy underlying it from the dynamics and characteristics of the social movements that ac- tively give it life. Social movements identify the institutions and practices that will be challenged, which in turn determines which doctrinal issues will provide the raw material for jurisgenerative change. Without understanding a movement’s strategy and oppor- tunities for action, one cannot know why law developed as it did. This article also demonstrates that this phase of women’s rights advocacy comprised not one movement—as it is usually described— but three: the suffragists who turned to a campaign for an Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) after winning the Nineteenth Amend- ment; the organizations inside and outside the labor movement that prioritized the wellbeing of women workers in the industrial econ- omy; and the birth control movement.
    [Show full text]
  • "Do I Look Like a Chick?": Men, Women, and Babies on Sitcom Maternity Stories1
    "Do I Look Like a Chick?": Men, Women, and Babies on Sitcom Maternity Stories1 Judy Kutulas On Monday evening, January 19,1953, forty million Americans watched as the very pregnant Lucy Ricardo (7 Love Lucy, 1951-57) emerged from her bedroom to declare that it was time to go to the hospital.2 What followed was a slapstick salute to 1950s gender stereotypes. Lucy, radiant and serene, was left behind in the panic her announcement generated. Husband Ricky had rehearsed the moment, but choked when it actually arrived, spilling her suitcase, losing the phone, and putting her coat on the neighbor. When they reached the hospital, it was dazed Ricky who rode in the wheelchair. The audience modestly bade goodbye to Lucy at the elevator door, thereafter watching Ricky's response to fatherhood. He paced the fathers' waiting room, exchanged comments with the other fathers about the advantages of sons over daughters, and finally fainted at the sight of his son. Fast-forward about forty years to the blended family of Frank Lambert and Carol Foster {Step by Step, 1991-present): Frank and Carol got off to the hospital without a hitch and we didn't say goodbye to Carol at the elevator. Instead, we saw her in labor, cranky and demanding. Frank was there too, inadequate and embarrassed. Their children, meanwhile, paced the waiting room no longer reserved for fathers, girls in blissful smiles and boys looking uncom­ fortable. How long does it take to have a baby, one boy asked another. "How should I know," was the reply, "do I look like a chick?" Two TV birthing stories, forty years apart, reveal some curious changes and continuities.
    [Show full text]
  • The Legacy of Woman Suffrage for the Voting Right
    UCLA UCLA Women's Law Journal Title Dominance and Democracy: The Legacy of Woman Suffrage for the Voting Right Permalink https://escholarship.org/uc/item/4r4018j9 Journal UCLA Women's Law Journal, 5(1) Author Lind, JoEllen Publication Date 1994 DOI 10.5070/L351017615 Peer reviewed eScholarship.org Powered by the California Digital Library University of California ARTICLE DOMINANCE AND DEMOCRACY: THE LEGACY OF WOMAN SUFFRAGE FOR THE VOTING RIGHT JoEllen Lind* TABLE OF CONTENTS INTRODUCTION ............................................ 104 I. VOTING AND THE COMPLEX OF DOMINANCE ......... 110 A. The Nineteenth Century Gender System .......... 111 B. The Vote and the Complex of Dominance ........ 113 C. Political Theories About the Vote ................. 116 1. Two Understandings of Political Participation .................................. 120 2. Our Federalism ............................... 123 II. A SUFFRAGE HISTORY PRIMER ...................... 126 A. From Invisibility to Organization: The Women's Movement in Antebellum America ............... 128 1. Early Causes ................................. 128 2. Women and Abolition ........................ 138 3. Seneca Falls - Political Discourse at the M argin ....................................... 145 * Professor of Law, Valparaiso University; A.B. Stanford University, 1972; J.D. University of California at Los Angeles, 1975; Candidate Ph.D. (political the- ory) University of Utah, 1994. I wish to thank Akhil Amar for the careful reading he gave this piece, and in particular for his assistance with Reconstruction history. In addition, my colleagues Ivan Bodensteiner, Laura Gaston Dooley, and Rosalie Levinson provided me with perspicuous editorial advice. Special acknowledgment should also be given to Amy Hague, Curator of the Sophia Smith Collection of Smith College, for all of her help with original resources. Finally, I wish to thank my research assistants Christine Brookbank, Colleen Kritlow, and Jill Norton for their exceptional contribution to this project.
    [Show full text]
  • Feminism Struggle of Greer Kadetsky in Meg Wolitzer's
    FEMINISM STRUGGLE OF GREER KADETSKY IN MEG WOLITZER’S NOVEL THE FEMALE PERSUASION THESIS Presented to the Faculty of Letters Bosowa University Makassar in Partial Fulfillment of Requirement for Sarjana Degree at the English Department MAHARANI R. 4515051010 FACULTY OF LETTERS ENGLISH DEPARTMENT BOSOWA UNIVERSITY MAKASSAR 2019 iv v ACKNOWLEDGMENT In the name of Allah, The most Gracious, The most Merciful. First of all, the writer would like to grant the most gratitude and much thankfulness to Allah SWT, because of the bless and mercy the research can be finished. Then, peace and blessing be upon our prophet Muhammad SAW. The writer would like to express her highest gratitude to her family: Her beloved father Rachman Amin, S.Kep, Ns, her beloved mother Asriyanti Rahman, for giving unlimited love, support, spirit, prayers, hope, and all the contributions that the writer needs, until she finished her study in the university. Therefore, the writer thank to sister and brother: Khairunnisa Rachman and Putera Panrita Rachman for all their attentions to her. The deepest gratitude addressed to the first supervisor, Dra. Dahlia D. Moelier, M.Hum and the second supervisor, Andi Tenri Abeng, S.S, M.Hum. The writer has been amazingly fortunate to have supervisors like them. Without their advices, critics, and supports this research will mean nothing. The writer wishes to say her gratitude to the following persons the Dean of English Letters Faculty, Bosowa University, Dr. H. Herman Mustafa, M.Pd, the head of English Letters Faculty, Bosowa University, Andi Tenri Abeng, S.S, M.Hum, All lecturers of English Letters Faculty who have taught and educated the writer during her study at Bosowa vi University.
    [Show full text]
  • Theorising Women and War in Kurdistan. a Feminist and Critical Perspective
    Theorising Women and War in Kurdistan. A feminist and critical perspective. Nazand Begikhani, Wendelmoet Hamelink and Nerina Weiss Abstract In this introductory article to the special issue Women and War in Kurdistan, we connect our topic to feminist theory, to anthropological theory on war and conflict and their long-term consequences, and to theory on gender, nation and (visual) representation. We investigate Kurdish women´s victimisation and marginalisation, but also their resistance and agency as female combatants and women activists, their portrayal by media and scholars, and their self- representation. We offer herewith a critical perspective on militarisation, women´s liberation, and women´s experiences in times of war and peace. We also introduce the five articles in this issue and discuss how they contribute to the study of women and war in two main areas: the wide- reaching effects of war on women’s lives, and the gendered representation and images of war in Kurdistan. Keywords: female combatants, feminism, feminist theory, gender and nation, human rights, militarism, representation, sexual violence, victimhood, visualisation, war, women’s activism, women´s movements Introduction This special issue contributes to critical and empirical-based analyses of the present realities of Kurdish women in all parts of Kurdistan and explores the multiple effects and affects of war on women in the Kurdish regions. In doing so, we follow feminist and intersectional approaches to the study of violence and war. Readers might need to be reminded that Kurdistan is not a geographical entity with defined borders and Kurds are straddling the present state boundaries of Turkey, Syria, Iraq, Iran (Dahlman, 2002).
    [Show full text]
  • Landscapes of Mothering: Creating Maternal Identity Through Story
    LANDSCAPES OF MOTHERING: CREATING MATERNAL IDENTITY THROUGH STORY by Cynthia M. Miller APPROVED BY SUPERVISORY COMMITTEE: ___________________________________________ Marilyn Waligore, Chair ___________________________________________ Erin A. Smith ___________________________________________ Charissa N. Terranova ___________________________________________ John Pomara Copyright 2018 Cynthia M. Miller All Rights Reserved To my father, Jim Miller, who ignited my passion for photography, my mother, Marion Miller, whose experiences and identity have inspired me, my husband, Habib Saidane, and our children, Leila, Ali, and Sami, who make me a mother and an artist. LANDSCAPES OF MOTHERING: CREATING MATERNAL IDENTITY THROUGH STORY by CYNTHIA M. MILLER, BA, MA DISSERTATION Presented to the Faculty of The University of Texas at Dallas in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY IN HUMANITIES—AESTHETIC STUDIES THE UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AT DALLAS May 2018 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS My deep gratitude to my committee chair, Marilyn Waligore, who has guided and encouraged me through the entire process of getting my doctorate. Her generosity as a professor in sharing her knowledge, creating opportunities for student artists to exhibit, and connecting us to the photography and art world are unsurpassed. Because of her I am a better artist and a better teacher. Heartfelt thanks to Dr. Erin Smith for teaching me to read in a deeper way; to Dr. Charissa Terranova for introducing me to new ways of thinking and new things to think about; and to John Pomara, for encouraging my creative process and recognizing the potential of the photograph that started this series. Thank you to my husband, Habib Saidane, who partners with me in raising our children and values an educated wife.
    [Show full text]
  • "Taming" Feminism: Tracing Women and Culture Through Adaptation
    “TAMING” FEMINISM: TRACING WOMEN AND CULTURE THROUGH ADAPTATION Stephanie M. Springer A Thesis Submitted to the Graduate College of Bowling Green State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of MASTER OF ARTS May 2013 Committee: Kimberly Coates, Advisor Stephannie Gearhart © 2013 Stephanie M. Springer All Rights Reserved iii ABSTRACT Kimberly Coates, Advisor Shakespearean adaptation is not just about Shakespeare. Rather, Shakespearean adaptation tells us as much about the cultures that adapt the plays as it does about Shakespeare. My particular focus in this thesis is film adaptations of The Taming of the Shrew and the messages that these adaptations send about cultural responses to feminism. The staging of the play—and the nature of Kate and Petruchio’s relationship—acts as a barometer of sorts, measuring cultural attitudes about women’s proper societal position. Film adaptations of The Taming of the Shrew are especially notable for the ways they speak to cultural anxieties about women’s sexual and psychological autonomy. Their increased production during certain decades points to heightened cultural concern about the role of women at that time. I examine four different adaptations of The Taming of the Shrew, produced during four different cultural moments, and analyze how each adaptation reveals societal reactions to feminism. I look at the ways in which each adaptation speaks to its culture and reifies—or resists—the cultural ideologies of the time. By examining four different adaptations from four distinct cultural moments, I thus trace the trajectory of cultural responses to feminism from the early 1900s to the present moment.
    [Show full text]