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Mothers & More

Moms Media Reality Check

Eligible Types of Media

TV shows
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Seven Deadly Stereotypes of Mothers

Category

Negative Stereotype or Assumption

Historical Examples

Bon Bon Eating Mom
  • Stay at home moms don’t do anything all day but watch TV and eat bon bons.
  • Stay at home moms are loving and nurturing but their brains are mush.

Peg Bundy from Married With Children

Career Crazed Mom
  • Working moms are selfish careerists who neglect their kids.
  • Working moms are competent and intelligent but cold and uncaring.

Baby Boom movie. Diane Keaton plays the ultimate ‘80s career woman and then chucks it all for the kid.

Supermom

The Supermom is the perfect nurturing mom – always attentive to the kids, doesn’t miss a school event, bakes the brownies from scratch – plus the Do it All Mom is the perfect professional career woman – always available for work, stays on the fast track and makes it to CEO – plus she has a perfect marriage, perfect sex life and perfect kids.

Enjolie perfume ad, “I can bring home the bacon, fry it up in a pan, and never let you forget you’re a man.”

24/7 Bliss Mom

Good mothers love every minute of it, never feel ambivalent, never have a bad day, never yell at their kids, and are always smiling, relaxed and in control.
  • Rosanne busts this stereotype. “If the kids are alive by 5pm, I’ve done my job.”
  • Claire Huxtable on The Cosby Show illustrates it.

Martyr Mom
  • Good mothers always put their family’s interests ahead of their own.
  • Good mothers do not have their own needs and interests, and do not seek their own fulfillment.
  • Line from the kid in The Christmas Story, “In 20 years, my mother never ate a hot meal,” as we watch mom get up repeatedly from her meal to get something for someone else.

Glam Mom

Good mothers are glamorous: young, attractive, perfectly fit, designer dressed, perfectly coiffed – and so is their child.

Fit Pregnancy magazine

Domestic Goddess Mom
  • Good mothers love to do housework, are obsessed with cleaning.
  • Only mothers are capable of housework.
  • Good mothers have a spotless house and do everything from scratch; home-cooked meals, perfect birthday parties, and crafts.

Wisk ads where somehow his dirty rings were her fault.

Questions

  1. What stereotypes are represented, reinforced, used or blasted?  How?
  2. How realistic is this?  Does this reflect me and the mothers I know and their experiences?
  3. What are they assuming about me, mothers, and our experiences?  Are these assumptions accurate or not?
  4. How does this make me feel?  Superior, inadequate, insecure, fearful, angry, ugly, proud, inspired?
  5. For what purpose was this message created? What are they trying to sell me? What message do they want me to hear?
  6. What is this saying society expects of mothers?