Full Description
An Ideological Analysis of Breastfeeding in Contemporary America: Disciplining the Maternal Body analyzes the discourses involved in the pro-breastfeeding, "breast is best" paradigm, highlighting how such politically charged rhetoric restrains women's ability to make the choices that are best for them and their families. Loreen Olson and Jenni M. Simon combat the idea that is so often espoused by medical professionals, researchers, and society at large: to be a good parent, one must provide breast milk to the infant in order for the baby to grow into a healthy, productive citizen. By exposing the biases present, Olson and Simon advocate for the need to make discursive space for all parents and all feeding choices. Scholars of communication, rhetoric, gender and women's studies, and feminism will find this book particularly useful.
Contents
Chapter 1: Discourse, Ideology, and Breastfeeding: The Breast-is-Best Discursive Formation and the Construction of Hegemonic Mothering
Chapter 2: Building the Breast-is-Best Discursive Formation: A Genealogy of Hegemonic Motherhood
Chapter 3: Creating the Gaze: The Birth of the Medi-Institutionalization of Breastfeeding
Chapter 4: Disciplining the Maternal Body: Discourses for Expecting Moms
Chapter 5: Disciplining the Marginalized Maternal Body: Discourses of Race, Class, and Privilege
Chapter 6: Talking Back: The Discourses of Lived Experience
Chapter 7: Talking Back and Taking Back: Discourses of Resistance and Change
