Introduction [excerpt] The popular media has often been criticized for creating and sustaining the cultural battlefield of the so-called "Mommy Wars." However, I argue in this paper that these two opposing social images of "traditional" versus "contemporary" mothers are rooted in the internal conflict over issues of motherhood that have divided the feminist movement and scholarship since its beginning. Many of the online communiities of stay-at-home mothers have called attention to...

Introduction [excerpt] Feminist theorists have long been evaluating the representation of the mother, both in literature and in a cultural context, through media and other contemporary sources.... By drawing on insights from feminist theories and the rhetorical theory of the enthymeme, this essay will uncover the history and meaning of constructed gender roles pertaining to mothering, why we accept them as the norm, and will conclude by discussing how society can disengage from the dominant discourse and...