Babies or No Babies: Communicating with Feminine Bodies in Mom Lit

Handojo, Priska Febrinia and Djundjung, Jenny Mochtar (2016) Babies or No Babies: Communicating with Feminine Bodies in Mom Lit. k@ta, 18 (1). pp. 25-31. ISSN ISSN 1411-2639 / Online: ISSN 2302-6294

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Abstract

Mom-Lit, or Mommy Literature, can be seen as a form of challenging the feminine body’s ideals and motherhood ideology. The article studies how the feminine bodies are represented in three Mom Lit: Baby Proof by Emily Giffin, Shopaholic and Baby by Sophie Kinsella, and Confessions of A Bad Mother by Stephanie Calman. The way the women describe different bodily experiences prompts questions and challenges to the ideal feminine body and womanhood, which are associated with motherhood. Using the review of Motherhood Ideology and the concept of Silent Body, this article takes a closer look on how the women in Mom Lit think and talk about their bodies. The analysis shows that Mom Lit presents silent body to relate with the childfree choice and offers different maternal body experience that is in contrast with the feminine body ideals. In the end, it can be concluded that Mom Lit constructs a new site of women’s liberation by being receptive and communicative to the body.

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