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#regrettingmotherhood in Germany : feminism, motherhood, and culture
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Stone, Katherine and Heffernan, Valerie (2021) #regrettingmotherhood in Germany : feminism, motherhood, and culture. Signs : Journal of Women in Culture and Society, 46 (2). pp. 337-360. doi:10.1086/710807
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Official URL: https://doi.org/10.1086/710807
Abstract
Orna Donath’s controversial article “Regretting Motherhood: A Sociopolitical Analysis,” published in the Winter 2015 edition of Signs, ruffled feathers in many quarters but nowhere more than in Germany, where it inflamed a heated debate in mainstream and social media that lasted for several weeks. In this article, we analyze the subsequent debate under the hashtag #regrettingmotherhood in two ways: First, we explore how the forceful reaction to Donath’s research among the German public exposes a particularly potent ideology of sacrosanct motherhood that has its roots in Protestant tradition and that renders the idea of maternal regret particularly unimaginable in the German context. We further show how the #regrettingmotherhood debate has created a space for German women to voice their dissatisfaction with the social supports available to mothers in Germany as well as their frustration with the social pressure to conform to an impossible standard of caregiving. Second, we relate the media discussion in Germany to broader conversations about the inordinate pressure on mothers in the Western world to meet inflated standards of child nurturance. We argue that the #regrettingmotherhood debate buttresses existing scholarship on how idealizing discourses of maternity add to women’s anxieties about motherhood and police their behaviors and emotions. Moreover, we find ample evidence in some of the reactions to the debate to suggest that maternal myths can also have a negative effect on women’s reproductive choices, in some cases even informing their decision to remain child-free.
| Item Type: | Journal Article | ||||||
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| Subjects: | B Philosophy. Psychology. Religion > BF Psychology | ||||||
| Divisions: | Faculty of Arts > School of Modern Languages and Cultures | ||||||
| Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH): | Motherhood, Motherhood -- Social aspects -- Germany, Feminism -- Germany, Mother and child -- Psychological aspects, Choice (Psychology) | ||||||
| Journal or Publication Title: | Signs : Journal of Women in Culture and Society | ||||||
| Publisher: | University of Chicago Press | ||||||
| ISSN: | 0097-9740 | ||||||
| Official Date: | November 2021 | ||||||
| Dates: |
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| Volume: | 46 | ||||||
| Number: | 2 | ||||||
| Page Range: | pp. 337-360 | ||||||
| DOI: | 10.1086/710807 | ||||||
| Status: | Peer Reviewed | ||||||
| Publication Status: | Published | ||||||
| Access rights to Published version: | Open Access | ||||||
| Copyright Holders: | © 2020 by Valerie Heffernan and Katherine Stone | ||||||
| Description: | https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/full/10.1086/710807 |
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