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By Susan J. Douglas, Meredith Michaels

Susan Douglas first took at the media's misrepresentation of ladies in her humorous, scathing social remark Where the ladies Are.

Now, she and Meredith Michaels, have became a sardonic (but by no means jaundiced) eye towards the cult of the hot momism: a development in American tradition that's inflicting ladies to think that basically in the course of the perfection of motherhood can real contentment be discovered. This imaginative and prescient of motherhood is very romanticized and but its criteria for fulfillment stay endlessly out of succeed in, regardless of how difficult ladies may perhaps attempt to "have it all."

The Mommy Myth takes a provocative travel during the earlier thirty years of media pictures approximately moms: the superficial achievements of the fame mother, the inside track media's sensational assurance of harmful day care, the staging of the "mommy wars" among operating moms and stay-at-home mothers, and the onslaught of values-based advertising that increases mothering criteria to most unlikely degrees, simply to identify a couple of. In live performance with this messaging, the authors contend, is a conservative backwater of speaking heads propagating the parable of the fashionable mother.

This nimble overview of ways motherhood has been formed through out-of-date mores isn't really approximately even if girls must have young children or no longer, or approximately even if after they have teenagers moms may still paintings or remain at domestic. it really is approximately how it doesn't matter what they do or how challenging they fight, ladies won't ever in achieving the promised nirvana of idealized mothering. Douglas and Michaels skillfully map the space traveled from the times whilst The female Mystique demanded extra for girls than the unpaid exertions of holding apartment and elevating little ones, to today's not-so-subtle strain to opposite this thirty-year development. A must-read for each lady.

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Additional info for The Mommy Myth: The Idealization of Motherhood and How It Has Undermined Women

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The influence of computer literacy, however, was not enough to change subjects’ initial 32 Technophobia: What is it? Does it exist? Who has it? negative attitudes, although the level of negativity did decrease. This research suggests that neither the awareness of what computers can do nor the knowledge of a programming language is sufficient to change subjects’ attitudes towards computers. Although individuals’ values were negatively affected by computer illiteracy, computer literacy did not significantly improve the situation.

442) She goes on to say that: empirical findings tell us something about the mental health correlates of instrumentality and expressiveness but cannot legitimately be generalized beyond this realm. (author’s italics, p. 442) Baldwin et al. (1986) concur with Lubinski et al. (1983) and Taylor and Hall (1982) that the labels ‘dominance-poise’ and ‘nurturance and warmth’ are most appropriate for the masculinity and femininity constructs (respectively) measured by the BSRI.

What is it? 1 a resistance to talking about computers or even thinking about computers 2 fear or anxiety towards computers 3 hostile or aggressive thoughts about computers (Jay, 1981:47) Does it exist? Computer anxiety is a real phenomenon. (Moldafsky and Kwon, 1994:301) Who has it? One third of the entire population of the industrial world! (Brosnan and Davidson, 1994) Chapter 2 Technophobia and gender Are computers ‘boys’ toys’? There can be no doubt that far from reducing the sex role stereotyping that has been so apparent with the physical sciences and with ‘older’ craft and technology subjects, the introduction of Information Technology in schools is leading to the establishment of yet another high status subject with a strongly masculine bias.

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The Mommy Myth: The Idealization of Motherhood and How It Has Undermined Women by Susan J. Douglas, Meredith Michaels


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