Skip to Main Content
 

Global Search Box

 
 
 

ETD Abstract Container

Abstract Header

New Media, New Maternities: Representations of Maternal Femininity in Postfeminist Popular Culture

Rossie, Amanda Marie
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1397597413

Abstract Details

2014, Doctor of Philosophy, Ohio State University, Interdisciplinary Programs.
New Media, New Maternities: Representations of Maternal Femininity in Postfeminist Popular Culture argues that new media facilitate the construction of new maternities in popular culture through the privileging of visuality as the primary way to celebrate and/or regulate maternal bodies; through the veneration of self-surveillence, self-discipline, and the willing subjection of oneself to feedback as the primary form of gendered citizenship and participation in these spaces; and through the processes of normativity and normalization fed by user-generated comments and feedback. Young women increasingly rely on new media in order to comply with postfeminist demands, and these technologies are also spaces where fantasies are built and anxieties are fueled, and these two elements frequently merge at the intersection of normative femininity and maternity. Postfeminism describes the ways the liberal feminism has been recognized by social institutions and mainstream culture as commonsense. It also explains the ways the feminist language of choice and empowerment has been co-opted and re-defined for a new generation of young women who find their power through (hetero)sexuality, consumption, and decisions to push marriage and motherhood to the backburner. In recent decades, normative femininity has been represented in postfeminist media through the predominant archetype of the "single girl"--the young, white, educated, heterosexual, middle class girl who prioritizes career success, consumption, romance and sex without too much commitment, and body projects ranging from fashion to diets to online profiles. The "single girl" has also been the primary subject of feminist critiques of postfeminist media culture because this archetype emphasizes postfeminism's obsession with normative bodies and its dismissal of the experiences of women of color, queer women, and working class women. I intervene in existing scholarship to argue that the "single girl" cannot be understood without thinking critically about the role of the maternal in her identity formation as well as what non-normative maternities are erased in order to reify the norm. I pinpoint the way postfeminist temporality, consumption, transformation, and an anxious obsession with documenting feminine milestones help the "single girl" transition to a "maternal girl." I trace the ways these themes are emphasized in, by, and through new media technologies, and the result is the mapping of normative maternal femininity across a variety of new media spaces: photographs of maternal decision-making on Instagram, a Twitter-narrated abortion, YouTube videos documenting pregnancy test results, baby bump photographs on Pinterest boards, celebrity mom profiles in tabloid entertainment media, and maternity-driven reality television shows. Using discursive analysis, I interrogate how postfeminism encourages young women to incorporate maternity into their preexisting lifestyles. Often, this assimilation occurs in new media because these spaces offer the tools for young women to craft their maternal identities, build communities, and curate idealized images of motherhood. As sites of feminine anxiety and maternal fantasy, new media prominently emerge in each chapter and reveal the tensions many young women must negotiate in order to find pleasure, belonging, or value in these spaces.
Mary Thomas (Advisor)
Linda Mizejewski (Committee Member)
Ruby Tapia (Committee Member)
Jill Bystydzienski (Committee Member)
345 p.
American Studies; Gender Studies; Mass Media; Womens Studies
postfeminism; maternity; new media; popular culture; social media; motherhood; girlhood; femininity; pregnancy; single girl; identity; gender; race; class; sexuality; technology

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Rossie, A. M. (2014). New Media, New Maternities: Representations of Maternal Femininity in Postfeminist Popular Culture [Doctoral dissertation, Ohio State University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1397597413

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Rossie, Amanda. New Media, New Maternities: Representations of Maternal Femininity in Postfeminist Popular Culture. 2014. Ohio State University, Doctoral dissertation. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1397597413.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Rossie, Amanda. "New Media, New Maternities: Representations of Maternal Femininity in Postfeminist Popular Culture." Doctoral dissertation, Ohio State University, 2014. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1397597413

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

osu1397597413
208
© 2014, all rights reserved.
This open access ETD is published by The Ohio State University and OhioLINK.