Women's Studies 2161A/B Lecture Notes - Lecture 7: Teen Mom, Bad Moms, June Cleaver

• School: Western University
• Department: Women's Studies
• Course: Women's Studies 2161A/B
• Professor: Nichole Edwards

Document Summary

Reproductive responsibility representations of teen motherhood and class. Representation of teen pregnancy and teen pregnancy in popular culture. Representations of mothers inserted in how dominant narrative surrounding motherhood, how these discourses shape our understandings of class/ poverty and how the see and help us understand teen motherhood as a social problem. Working class femininity as a failure to live up to middle class femininity, failure to regulate, emotions, body, excessive, how thats linked to understanding of performance of class. Alongside this excessiveness is idea of working class women as excessively fertile, having too many babies, often with multiple partners. Motherhood becomes site which women can perform an appropriate femininity. Idealized femininity as middle class femininity demonstrated through appropriate consumption. Working class femininity associated with inappropriate excess; emotions, flesh, and fertility. Motherhood becomes another site through which to demonstrate appropriate/inappropriate femininity. Social anxiety around the excessive fertility of the working class. Idealized notions of what makes a good mom.