Mothering through Precarity

"... women, with children or without, have a lot to gain from this smart, insightful work. It outlines a nagging problem so specific I lacked a clear definition of it before I started reading.... It's an idea rooted directly in our dominant political ideology, one that many cannot name: neoliberalism." -- Amani Newton * Pittsburgh City Paper * "Mothering through Precarity ... richly illustrates what a theoretically, conceptually and emotionally confused and paradoxical situation women are in with respect to an online world that offers family-enhancing information and advice, communicative solace and flexible income-earning opportunities, but also exploits their ongoing efforts at maintaining a positive family environment by creating new anxieties and offering meagre financial returns.... After reading this book, it is not so difficult to understand why some women in the Rust Belt voted for Donald Trump's media-fuelled promises of a better future." -- E. Stina Lyon * Times Higher Education * "Mothering through Precarity is at its best when it demonstrates digital media as a crucial mechanism by which mothers daily discipline themselves to feel ever more optimistic and upbeat in spite of the pervasive uncertainty they feel.... Suitable for undergraduate and graduate courses at the intersection of family, gender, and media, we recommend this book, and in particular chapter three and the Conclusion, for sections highlighting the use of digital media in families." -- Elissa Zeno and Allison J. Pugh * Gender & Society * "Mothering Through Precarity is a critical contribution to the study of . . . the affective and psychic life of neoliberalism. . . . With genuine empathy and care for their interviewees, Wilson and Chivers Yochim show how mothers are caught up in the forces of precarization that threaten their families, and how they turn to the digital mamasphere to resist the turbulences of advanced neoliberalism." -- Shani Orgad * Journal of Communication Inquiry * "This rich approach to the topic and subjects of inquiry makes this book valuable to feminist media and cultural studies' scholars, motherhood studies, and those with an interest in the gendered aspects of new media and affect theory. . . . An original and important scholarly contribution on gendered digital culture and the growing mamasphere." -- Tisha Dejmanee * International Journal of Communication * "A well-written and well-argued book about modern motherhood. . . both thought-provoking and deeply saddening. . . . This book is recommended for scholars of motherhood, contemporary gender performance, neoliberalism, and digital media consumption." -- Saralyn McKinnon-Crowley * Resources for Gender and Women's Studies *

Julie A. Wilson is Assistant Professor of Communication Arts and Theatre at Allegheny College. Emily Chivers Yochim is Associate Professor of Communication Arts and Theatre at Allegheny College and the author of Skate Life: Re-Imagining White Masculinity.

Acknowledgments ix Introduction. The Digital Mundane: Mothering, Media, and Precarity 1 1. Mother Loads: Why "Good" Mothers Are Anxious 31 2. Mamapreneurialism: Family Appreciation in the Digital Mundane 65 3. Digital Entanglements: Staying Happy in the Mamasphere 103 4. Individualized Solidarities: Privatizing Happiness Together 137 Conclusion. Socializing Happiness (or, Why We Wrote an Unhappy Book) 169 Afterword. Packets and Pockets 185 Notes 189 Bibliography 205 Index 213