Yeah, her sample was primarily upper-middle-class and upper-class women in the suburbs of major East Coast cities. I think a study that included middle-class, working-class, and AFDC-receiving mothers would show a very different picture of American motherhood. OR even, you know, small-town mothers.
I don't identify either. (Born in 1973.) I did experience a lot of pressure about breastfeeding, and felt uncomfortable formula-feeding in public because of what other mothers would think. But the whole competitive thing is just not on the radar screen in my social circles. Hysteria about getting our kids into the "right" preschool? I don't even know what the "right" preschool is, for Baltimore. When I get in conversations about baby activities, it's on a level of "oh, that sounds like a fun way to fill up some time," not "you must give your baby the right advantages."
I'm not saying the social milieu she writes about doesn't exist, I just think it's far narrower than she, and the Newsweek editors, and all the other media people who have elevated her book to importance, believe.
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branchandroot
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Date: 2006-02-28 03:58 pm (UTC)I don't identify either. (Born in 1973.) I did experience a lot of pressure about breastfeeding, and felt uncomfortable formula-feeding in public because of what other mothers would think. But the whole competitive thing is just not on the radar screen in my social circles. Hysteria about getting our kids into the "right" preschool? I don't even know what the "right" preschool is, for Baltimore. When I get in conversations about baby activities, it's on a level of "oh, that sounds like a fun way to fill up some time," not "you must give your baby the right advantages."
I'm not saying the social milieu she writes about doesn't exist, I just think it's far narrower than she, and the Newsweek editors, and all the other media people who have elevated her book to importance, believe.