Mothers, Sex, And Sexuality

Overview

Mothers, Sex, and Sexuality talks about things not normally dared spoken out loud. It presents a rigorous academic analysis of the myriad ways in which the sexual/maternal divide affects women, birthing people, and those of us who assume or are ascribed the title "mother." We examine the way we as mothers talk to our daughters about sex, the way we talk about sex in a cultural context, and the deafening silence around sex in a medical system that overlooks maternal sexuality. We return repeatedly to the impact of both Christianity and Hinduism on the mother as someone to be revered but tightly controlled. We embrace the lost eroticism of mothering and hail breastfeeding as a sexual maternal practice. We discuss the way fat mothers destabalise the heteronormative maternal model, the way kinky queers are reconfiguring the sexual/maternal divide, and we explore the domestic relationship that springs up between mothers and nannies. In a titillating climax we revel in the sexual maternal as embodied through performance art, poetry, installations, and comedy. This book boldly provides both a challenge to the patriarchal constraints of motherhood and a racy road-map escape route out of the sexual-maternal dichotomy.

Reviews

Mothers, Sex and Sexuality is the most inspiring book to come down the book-birth-canal in ages; delicious food for thought, diverse, multifaceted perspectives, titillating taboo topics, and deep sexual intelligence. If you are like me--not a birth mother and not that interested in motherhood-- this book is still for you. -- Annie Sprinkleâ€â€ÂArtist/Sexecologist/Educator An insightful and expository collection at the junction of sexuality and motherhood. The collection explores the structural landscape, socio-cultural contexts, taboos, and sites of agency framing this point of convergence. Crucially, we are shown that it is not necessarily sexuality itself that often positions sexual mothers in contradiction to gendered conventions of motherhood, but the unapologetic application of agency in the expression of that sexuality. This is an important and informative departure from conventional (even seemingly supportive) representations of the sexual expression of mothers, and of great use in providing a nuanced understanding of mothers and sexuality in a contemporary context still dominated by the caricatures of the porn industry, and the commodifying oversimplifications of late capitalism. -- J. Maki Motapanyane, Ph.D. Women's & Gender Studies, Dept. of Humanities Mount Royal University Chair, Alberta Historical Resources Foundation

Author Biography

Michelle Walks has a PhD in Anthropology and Gender & Women's Studies, and teaches Anthropology, Sociology, and Gender, Sexuality, and Women's Studies at various post-secondary institutions. Joani Mortenson is a queer mama, mover, and yoga instructor. Dr Holly Zwalf has a PhD in feminist kink, is the coordinator of Rainbow Families Qld, and is a filmmaker, poet, and freelance journalist.