JourMS Issue 9 2024

Threads of Connection

Meagan WelchLetter From the Editor
Agnes HowardNot going back: Motherhood in the Covid-19 pandemic
Alicia Campos MassóWomen Cultural Agents. The Beguines: Educators and Caring Mothers
Amy WagnerWilding motherhood: matrilineal connection/disconnection from Alaska
Batya WeinbaumMOTHER: Shame, Blame and Pain; The Impact of Resistance and Healing
Blair DonohueThe Myth of the Maternal-Fetal Conflict
Blessing OgunyemiMatricentric Feminism and the Liberating Power of Unmasking Motherhood: Unknotting Maternal Grief, Guilt, and Shame in Yewande Omotoso’s An Unusual Grief
Carolyn FrakerLearning to Labor: Enlisting Childbirth Education to Disrupt Power
Collin XiaBlack Motherhood and Resistance in the Pre-Emancipation British Caribbean
Cydney Banton and Miranda J. BradyDefinite Must-Haves and Amazing Finds: Insecure Motherhood and Affiliate Linking Momfluencers on Instagram
Daisy MilmanMeasuring a contemporary patriarchal ideal: The development of the digital era “good motherhood” scale
DeAnna Bay-MarkinsPerceptions of Mothers with Cancer on their Children’s Resiliency and Coping: A Pilot Study
Ieva BisigirskaiteMothers Challenging “Unsafe” Birth: A Matricentric Feminist Perspective on Maternal Activism in Lithuania
Jillian Klean ZwillingFeminine Hygiene: An Examination of the Lysol Douche 
Krista ClineHow can physicians, nurses, staff, and hospitals improve emotional care of women who experience pregnancy loss?
Loïs van AlbadaNightbitch, the Bad Mother, and the Monstrous-Maternal
Sylvie CôtéA Matrifocal Reading: Monstrous Motherhood in Domenica Ruta’s Addiction Memoir With or Without You
Vanessa MarrTokens of Resistance 
Victoria BaileyAll The Ways, Always – An Ode to Mother Blame
Book Review: Martha Joy Rose for Author Talya JankovitsComing Sept 30th
Art Exhibitions MoM Conference Artists (and full conference schedule) 2024
Conference Videos Links

Threads of Connection–Sorry/Not Sorry: Confronting mother (and other) blame–healing & resistance in contemporary culture and beyond

Blame and shame can be self-imposed or projected by dominant social narratives that hyper-focus on the performative nature of motherhood as reinforced by unrealistic hegemonic constructions. This can be true for adult children reviewing familial relationships as well. Who is harmed by blame, and whom does it serve? How are oppressive systems reinforced or even sustained? How can we resist or dismantle these systems in large and small ways? What forms of resistance, peace-making, and healing can help improve our relationships?

The conference will serve as a site of resistance and empowerment as we deconstruct, reframe, and affirm the complex landscape of care-work and the ongoing labor within family systems everywhere. We recognize the scale, variance, and duration of these passionate debates and hope to this conference will contribute to the body of knowledge on this subject. International, interdisciplinary art & research.