Description
Coeditors Elizabeth Patton and Mimi Choi argue that an in-depth examination of media images of housework from the mid-nineteenth century to the early twenty-first century is long overdue. Modern depictions often imply that certain concerns can be resolved through excessive domesticity, reflecting some of the complicated and unfinished issues of second-wave feminism. Home Sweat Home: Perspectives on Housework and Modern Relationships reveals how widespread the cultural image of "perfect" housewives and the invisibility of household labor were in the past and remain today. In this collection of essays, contributors explore the construction of women as homemakers and the erasure of household labor from the middle-class home in popular representations of housework. They concentrate on such matters as the impact of second-wave feminism on families and gender relations; of popular culture-especially in film, television, magazines, and advertising-on our views of what constitutes home life and gender relations; and of changing views of sexuality and masculinity within the domestic sphere. Home Sweat Home will interest students and scholars of gender, cultural, media, and communication studies; sociology; and American history and appeal to anyone curious about housework, gender relations and popular culture.
About the Author
Elizabeth Patton is program coordinator and full-time faculty in the Johns Hopkins University Masters in Communication program in Washington, D.C. She received her doctorate from the Department of Media, Culture, and Communication at New York University. Her research includes media history; representations of gender, class, and race within mass media; and the impact of communication technology on space, family, and work-life balance. Mimi Choi received her MA from Ryerson University's Literatures of Modernity program in Toronto, Canada, after more than two decades of professional writing and editing in the financial, book, and magazine publishing industries. Her academic research encompasses the British and American novel, feminist theory and gender studies, and reception theory.
Reviews
Inspired by seminal works in feminist literature, editors Patton and Choi have assembled 12 articles examining gender stereotypes surrounding housework from the late 1800s through the 20th century. Contributors emphasize the role of culture and media in developing idealized aspirations of modern domesticity, in addition to researching housework trends. Chapters cover topics such as the use of modern appliances, parenting, and men's roles in domestic tasks. . . .[T]hose within higher education will find that chapters are well researched and written and cover novel areas of inquiry. The detailed index, along with the table of contents and list of figures, will aid readers in easily navigating to sections of interest within the work. Summing Up: Recommended. Upper-division undergraduates, graduate students, and researchers/faculty. * CHOICE *
This is a rich and rewarding collection of scholarship that deftly dismantles the stubborn repetitions across media culture of images of housework; repetitions that insist that the happy completion of these routine, invisible and undervalued chores are the central source of value in a cult of womanhood. * Women's Studies International Forum *
Previously unacquainted academics from different fields-English, media/communications, gender and women's studies-responded to a call for papers and bonded over their common interest. The resulting essays...approach the topic from a refreshing variety of starting points. Their discussions, which range from the vision of domestic technology expressed in the political discourse of the 1960s 'Kitchen Debates' to analysis of housework depicted in the animated film The Incredibles, leave strong impressions. * Feminist Collections: A Quarterly Of Women's Studies Resources *
Book Information
ISBN 9781442229693
Author Elizabeth Patton
Format Hardback
Page Count 284
Imprint Rowman & Littlefield
Publisher Rowman & Littlefield
Weight(grams) 544g
Dimensions(mm) 236mm * 159mm * 26mm
About the Author
Elizabeth Patton is program coordinator and full-time faculty in the Johns Hopkins University Masters in Communication program in Washington, D.C. She received her doctorate from the Department of Media, Culture, and Communication at New York University. Her research includes media history; representations of gender, class, and race within mass media; and the impact of communication technology on space, family, and work-life balance. Mimi Choi received her MA from Ryerson University's Literatures of Modernity program in Toronto, Canada, after more than two decades of professional writing and editing in the financial, book, and magazine publishing industries. Her academic research encompasses the British and American novel, feminist theory and gender studies, and reception theory.
Reviews
Inspired by seminal works in feminist literature, editors Patton and Choi have assembled 12 articles examining gender stereotypes surrounding housework from the late 1800s through the 20th century. Contributors emphasize the role of culture and media in developing idealized aspirations of modern domesticity, in addition to researching housework trends. Chapters cover topics such as the use of modern appliances, parenting, and men's roles in domestic tasks. . . .[T]hose within higher education will find that chapters are well researched and written and cover novel areas of inquiry. The detailed index, along with the table of contents and list of figures, will aid readers in easily navigating to sections of interest within the work. Summing Up: Recommended. Upper-division undergraduates, graduate students, and researchers/faculty. * CHOICE *
This is a rich and rewarding collection of scholarship that deftly dismantles the stubborn repetitions across media culture of images of housework; repetitions that insist that the happy completion of these routine, invisible and undervalued chores are the central source of value in a cult of womanhood. * Women's Studies International Forum *
Previously unacquainted academics from different fields-English, media/communications, gender and women's studies-responded to a call for papers and bonded over their common interest. The resulting essays...approach the topic from a refreshing variety of starting points. Their discussions, which range from the vision of domestic technology expressed in the political discourse of the 1960s 'Kitchen Debates' to analysis of housework depicted in the animated film The Incredibles, leave strong impressions. * Feminist Collections: A Quarterly Of Women's Studies Resources *
Book Information
ISBN 9781442229693
Author Elizabeth Patton
Format Hardback
Page Count 284
Imprint Rowman & Littlefield
Publisher Rowman & Littlefield
Weight(grams) 544g
Dimensions(mm) 236mm * 159mm * 26mm
