'Parenting' or 'mothering': the case of modern childcare magazines'.

Sunderland, Jane (2006) 'Parenting' or 'mothering': the case of modern childcare magazines'. Discourse and Society, 17 (4). pp. 503-528. ISSN 0957-9265

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Abstract

Many magazines devoted to the topic of the care of babies and young children now have titles which include some variation of parent rather than of mother (e.g. Parent and Child rather than Mother and Baby). This corresponds to evident new directions in social practices, and suggests a desire of the publishers to appeal to female and male readers. Whether both mothers and fathers are addressed and represented in the magazines makes these magazines particularly interesting sites for the study of fatherhood discourses. In this study, three magazines (Parents, Parenting and Baby Years) were analysed in terms of the extent to which the language of their advice features addressed women and/or men, and whether they could be seen as promoting ‘shared parenting’, ‘hands-on’ fatherhood, or at least a father-friendly environment. An examination of linguistic representation (in particular, of fathers), visuals, ‘voices’, gendered stereotypes and gendered discourses of parenting suggested that fathers are in fact not being fully addressed. These magazines may be lagging behind current social change and practices in ‘Western’ parenting.

Item Type:
Journal Article
Journal or Publication Title:
Discourse and Society
Uncontrolled Keywords:
/dk/atira/pure/subjectarea/asjc/3300/3315
Subjects:
?? discourses • fatherhood • gender • magazines • parenting • stereotypescommunicationsociology and political sciencep philology. linguistics ??
ID Code:
1472
Deposited By:
Deposited On:
11 Feb 2008 16:02
Refereed?:
Yes
Published?:
Published
Last Modified:
15 Jul 2024 09:34