An Ideological Analysis of Breastfeeding in Contemporary America

Disciplining the Maternal Body

Loreen N. Olson and Jenni M. Simon

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.

Lexington Books

Pages: 152 • Trim: 6 x 9

978-1-4985-3129-0 • Hardback • December 2019 • $99.00 • (£76.00)

978-1-4985-3130-6 • eBook • December 2019 • $89.00 • (£68.00)

Subjects: Language Arts & Disciplines / Rhetoric, Language Arts & Disciplines / Communication Studies, Social Science / Women's Studies

An Ideological Analysis of Breastfeeding in Contemporary America

Disciplining the Maternal Body

Hardback

eBook

Summary

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.

Details

Lexington Books

Pages: 152 • Trim: 6 x 9

978-1-4985-3129-0 • Hardback • December 2019 • $99.00 • (£76.00)

978-1-4985-3130-6 • eBook • December 2019 • $89.00 • (£68.00)

Subjects: Language Arts & Disciplines / Rhetoric, Language Arts & Disciplines / Communication Studies, Social Science / Women's Studies

Author

Loreen Olson is professor of communication at The University of North Carolina at Greensboro.

Jenni Simon is lecturer at The University of North Carolina at Greensboro.

Table of 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

Reviews

This book is a great addition to the wider scholarship on breastfeeding discourse. The work is well-suited for scholars and academic libraries, and given its more informal, clear style of writing, could be used effectively in undergraduate courses, particularly social science courses.
— Patricia Hamilton, Stellenbosch University