Single Mother : : The Emergence of the Domestic Intellectual / / Jane Juffer.

• Superior document: Title is part of eBook package: De Gruyter New York University Press Backlist eBook-Package 2000-2013
• VerfasserIn: Juffer, Jane,
• Place / Publishing House: New York, NY : : New York University Press, , [2006]; ©2006
• Year of Publication: 2006
• Language: English
• Physical Description: 1 online resource

Long perceived as the ultimate symbol of social breakdown and sexual irresponsibility, the single mother is now, in the context of welfare-to-work policies, often hailed as the new spokesperson for hard work and self-sufficiency. A dozen years after Dan Quayle denounced the television character Murphy Brown for making the decision to become a single mother “just another lifestyle choice,” President George W. Bush applauded single mothers for “heroic work,” and positive on-screen representations of single mothers abound, from The Gilmore Girls to Sex and the City to American Idol.Single Mother describes the recent cultural valorization of this figure that-in the midst of demographic changes in the U.S.-has emerged as the unlikely heroic and seductive voice of the new American family. Drawing on her own life as a single mother, interviews with dozens of other single mothers, cultural representations, and policies on welfare, immigration, childcare, and child custody, Juffer analyzes this contingent acceptance of single mothers. Finally, critiquing the relentless emphasis on self-sufficiency to the exclusion of community, Juffer shows the remarkable organizing skills of these new mothers of invention. At a moment when one-third of all babies are born to single moms, Single Mother is a fascinating and necessary examination of these new “domestic intellectuals.”

Table of Contents

Frontmatter -- Contents -- Acknowledgments -- Introduction: Domestic Intellectuals: Freedom and the Single Mom -- Part I. Keyword: Everyday Life -- 1. Representing the Single Mom (and Watching TV with Alex) -- Part II. Keyword: Spaces -- 2. The Corporate University -- 3. The U.S.-Mexican Border -- 4. Puerto Rican Chicago -- Part III. Keyword: Ethics -- 5. Mothers and Sons -- 6. Choice -- Conclusion: From Identity Politics to Human Rights -- Notes -- Works Cited -- Index -- About the Author