Pills, Pleasure, and Reproduction: Reconsidering Mothers' Little Helpers of the Postwar Era (1945--1965) (2001)
Jones, Rita Michelle (Author)
Washington State University
Burbick, Joan
Edition Details: Advisor: Burbick, Joan
Physical Details: 204 pp.
Language: English
Several scholars review the American postwar era and point out the diversity of women's roles, but consistent within these revisions is the awareness that the American culture celebrated women's return to the domestic sphere. Scholars do not, however, discuss how Euro-American and African-American women, specifically those within the container of domesticity, responded to their roles in terms of resistance. Using a variety of cultural texts, including women's magazines, women's writings, and film, I examine how Euro-American and African-American women used their bodies as sites of resistance to cultural constructions of motherhood, seen in the period as the ultimate form of success for women. Though this success was marketed toward Euro-American women, African-American women understood that they were expected to comply with the codes of domesticity. Many, however, refused to participate, and instead struggled against the racism of the period by existing on the boundaries of domesticity. Euro-American women within the confines of the homemaker's role, acted against these norms in the privacy of their homes. Women participated in significant changes to hospital birthing practices, supporting Natural Childbirth over Twilight Sleep, and used a tremendous amount of sleeping pills to redefine their roles as mothers. Included within my discussion is the issue of reproductive rights, as women refused to allow cultural constructions to dominate their bodies.
...MoreDescription Cited in Diss. Abstr. Int. A 62 (2002): 2762. UMI order no. 3023587.
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