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The authors focus on science as the source of tyranny over mothers is wrong. One just has to look at various traditions across cultures concerning pregnant wom
by RcouF1uZ4gsC 4y ago
The authors focus on science as the source of tyranny over mothers is wrong.
One just has to look at various traditions across cultures concerning pregnant women and new mothers to come across a massive lists of things you should and should not eat and things you should and should not do.
My guess is that human society has always seen pregnancy as mysterious and dangerous and very necessary to the continuation of the society. Thus, society has always told pregnant women and mothers all sorts of advice/rules about things that they thought would decrease the risk to mother or baby. This has continued into the scientific era, where people try to have at least some scientific backing for the advice.
Many times, the modern scientific advice is much less restrictive than the traditional, non scientific advice with regards to what can be eaten and what activities may be undertaken while pregnant.
- dchftcs 4y agoIt just reads like they optimized for best impact, trying to cherry pick their way to presenting a big strawman and strike it. At least, scientists and doctors have a much more nuanced point of view than the authors imply they do. The resentment towards constraints imposed by parenthood is also not a novel phenomenon. Considering the background of the authors, they certainly demonstrated some expertise and put a lot of effort in the rhetoric, "Science over Mothers", which makes me doubly doubtful of their level motivation to explain the problem better and clearer than scientists do: Jessica Clements is Assistant Professor of English and Composition Commons Director at Whitworth University in Spokane, Washington, and Managing Editor of Present Tense: A Journal of Rhetoric in Society. Kari Nixon is Assistant Professor of English at Whitworth University. She is the author of Kept from All Contagion and Quarantine Life from Cholera to COVID-19.
- jessaustin 4y ago[flagged]
- oldnetguy 4y agoMost new parents want what is best for their child and so there is much research into it. I don't see what the problem is. Are they mad that science told us that smoking was bad for children? Also a lot of the rant, and yes I call it a rant was not aimed at "science", but more of a culture of parental perfectionism.
- ohthehugemanate 4y agoI think you missed some nuance. I read it to mean that the Victorian models of motherhood and female-hood are magnified by the inability of (ethical) science to offer firm causal explanations for childhood outcomes. If there's a source it's good old fashioned Victorian patriarchy.