Wayne State University Wayne State University Dissertations 1-1-2017 Affective Dissonance: (post)feminism And Popular Cultural Expressions Of Motherhood Judith Lakämper Wayne State University, Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.wayne.edu/oa_dissertations Part of the American Literature Commons, and the Women's Studies Commons Recommended Citation Lakämper, Judith, "Affective Dissonance: (post)feminism And Popular Cultural Expressions Of Motherhood" (2017). Wayne State University Dissertations. 1720. https://digitalcommons.wayne.edu/oa_dissertations/1720 This Open Access Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by DigitalCommons@WayneState. It has been accepted for inclusion in Wayne State University Dissertations by an authorized administrator of DigitalCommons@WayneState. AFFECTIVE DISSONANCE: (POST)FEMINISM AND POPULAR CULTURAL EXPRESSIONS OF MOTHERHOOD by JUDITH LAKÄMPER DISSERTATION Submitted to the Graduate School of Wayne State University, Detroit, Michigan in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY 2017 MAJOR: ENGLISH Approved By: ––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––– Advisor Date ––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––– ––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––– ––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––– ––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––– DEDICATION For Lina without whom none of this would have come to matter ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS At this point in my academic journey, I would like to express my gratitude to everyone who helped me get here. renée c. hoogland provided me with countless opportunities for intellectual and professional development, challenged me to do the best work I could, and taught me not only to write what I mean, but also to mean what I write. Her trust and patience inspired me and her enthusiasm helped me celebrate every small victory. Jonathan Flatley recognized early on where my interest and investment were, and nudged me in the right direction more than once. Although I never had the pleasure of taking a class with him, Steven Shaviro approached me with intellectual kindness and generosity and showed confidence in my work when it mattered. I am immensely grateful to Antje Kley, who has offered encouragement and support since my early days as a student of American Studies. It has been an honor to be able to share my doctoral research from afar. Throughout the years, I have enjoyed the companionship of many fellow graduate students. This dissertation would not be the same without the friendship of Erin Bell, who read and commented on all my chapter drafts, and with whom I spent many exciting hours discussing my topic. Jill Darling’s humor and ability to put things in perspective reminded me to stay grounded and to focus on what really matters. Sara Kern introduced me to postfeminism, and then left me to figure it out on my own, cheering me on from afar. Without the commiserations of Jon Plumb, Ashley Whitmore, Alisa Allkins, Melanie Zynel, and Vinny Haddad among others, this journey would have been a much lonelier one. The English department funded me for a generous six years and recognized my work with several travel awards and scholarships. I was awarded a Travel Award for Graduate Students from the Humanities Center in 2014 and a Summer 2015 Dissertation Fellowship from the Graduate School. All of this support and recognition is much appreciated. Over the years, there have been many women who have provided me with space and time to think, read, and write by taking care of my other major accomplishment, my kids. My utmost gratitude iii goes to Karen Lakämper, Yasmin Ruple, and Kassi Rieger, who have given me space and my daughter love, and have never asked for anything in return. Berend and Jürine Wilbers shared with me their love for books and encouraged me to follow my curiosity wherever it may lead, both intellectually and geographically. I have always looked up to Christian Wilbers, who has paved the way and showed me how it’s done. The unconditional friendship of Verena Urban awaits me whenever I return “home.” This dissertation was written with, for, despite, alongside, and about Lina and Lukas. Their love and their laughter filled the hours I spent away from my work, and enabled me to return to it. Finally, I am most indebted to Justin Lakämper, who always provided a perspective I hadn’t thought of, left few of my claims uncontested, and thereby forced me to sharpen my arguments. Your unwavering faith in my abilities and your willingness to compromise were invaluable sources of inspiration and motivation. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS DEDICATION __________________________________________________________________ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS _________________________________________________________ iii LIST OF IMAGES ______________________________________________________________ vi INTRODUCTION ______________________________________________________________ 1 CHAPTER 1: WHEN BOSSYPANTS LEAN IN: AFFECTIVE DISSONANCE, NEOLIBERAL POSTFEMINISM, AND THE FORECLOSURE OF SOLIDARITY ____________________________ 19 CHAPTER 2: BROKEN PROMISES OF HAPPINESS: IDEOLOGIES OF MOTHERHOOD IN CONTEMPORARY MEMOIRS OF POSTPARTUM DEPRESSION ___________________________ 46 CHAPTER 3: BREASTFEEDING MATTERS: MATERNAL BECOMING IN RECENT VISUAL REPRESENTATIONS OF NURSING MOTHERS _______________________________________ 86 CHAPTER 4: “THIS IS THE WAY THAT WE LIVE … AND LOVE!”: QUEERING MOTHERHOOD ON THE L WORD _______________________________________________________________ 121 CONCLUSION _______________________________________________________________ 163 REFERENCES _______________________________________________________________ 171 ABSTRACT __________________________________________________________________ 183 AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL STATEMENT _______________________________________________ 185 v LIST OF IMAGES Image 1. Natalia Vodianova nursing her son Maxim, Instagram, 4 June 2014 ...................................... 88 Image 2. Catherine Opie, Self Portrait/Nursing, 2004 ................................................................................ 101 Image 3. Elinor Carucci, “The Drop,” 2013 ............................................................................................. 111 Image 4. “Let’s make a baby.” Bette and Tina anticipating insemination ............................................ 121 Image 5. “Let’s Do It.” Tina and Bette engaging in a procreative sex act ........................................... 139 Image 6. “Look, I’m a Cliché!” Tina eating a pickle while holding a positive pregnancy test ........... 153 Image 7. Tina’s pregnant body in full view ............................................................................................... 155 Image 8. “What Am I Doing?” Tina is distraught by her own sexual desires ..................................... 157 vi 1 INTRODUCTION Stay-at-home moms, working mothers, women who have it all: these are some of the figures populating the American popular cultural imagination about “good” mothering. Current political debates about motherhood tend to be centered around questions of women’s reproductive rights and the compatibility of motherhood and career. In the so-called Lean-in-Debate and Mommy Wars, which antagonize women with opposing viewpoints on the compatibility of motherhood and career, contestations of motherhood spread from print publications through popular media and the blogosphere.1 Answers to the question of what it means to be a “good” mother are marked by divisions of race, class, sexuality, and age, and are measured by the impact certain actions and decisions – where and how to give birth, whether and how long to nurse, and whether and when to resume professional careers – have on the child(ren). Experiences of pain, affection, attachment, co- dependence, frustration, anxiety, and despair as well as the concomitance of any (or all) of these are discursively simplified if not neglected, perpetuating an ideological structure in which the role of mothers continues to be defined through their contribution to a common good (i.e., patriarchy, the institution of the family, raising productive future citizens, etc.). While these are not particularly new issues – on the contrary, Betty Friedan’s analysis of the experiences of motherhood in The Feminine Mystique is frequently credited with having started second wave feminism2 – the fact that the discursive simplification continues to override, but also to produce the complexity of embodied experiences connected to mothering and motherhood indicates a need to explore further the ways in which maternal bodies encounter dominant ideological structures. Mothering as an experience is intensely visceral and thus personal in nature, but at the same time it is 1 Both of these debates were triggered by books of the same name. See Sheryl Sandberg, Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead (New York: Random House, 2013), and Leslie Morgan Steiner, Mommy Wars: Stay-at-Home and Career Moms Face off on Their Choices, Their Lives, Their Families (New York: Random House, 2007). 2 Betty Friedan, The Feminine Mystique (1963; repr., New York: Norton, 2001). 2 one of the most publicly discussed, governed, and regulated processes of life in contemporary America. The ubiquity of debates surrounding motherhood may be seen as directly provoked by its personal nature: because they are embodied, and thus so personal, experiences of mothering and motherhood are difficult to predict, control, and regulate so that any attempt to do so has to operate on