New Momism

Spread through the Media

In making their argument, Douglas and Michaels suggest, beginning in the 1980s and continuing today, that media outlets utilize fear tactics, guilt, and celebrity mom profiles to encourage and reinforce the new momism. Television news, for example, repeatedly cautions women about the “threats from without” to their children: cults, abduction, and consumer safety problems with car seats, toys, cribs, and food allergies from peanuts. At the same time, “threats from within,” primarily through sensationalized examples of “delinquent” mothers, also appear.

Delinquent mothers are mothers who are careless or reckless, sometimes even criminal, and, as a result, are a threat to their own children. Television news features stories of these mothers: mothers on crack, abusive and neglectful mothers, and murdering mothers. As a result, women are also cautioned to police themselves and to be vigilant against the potential threat from within.

Media celebrity mom profiles, on the other hand, encourage maternal guilt and insecurity, while simultaneously romanticizing motherhood. These profiles always show celebrity moms juggling it all—work, family, and mothering—with a smile on their face and in glowing pictures with their healthy, well-behaved children. In short, celebrity mom profiles show mothers who are “supermoms”: unruffled, contented women who find motherhood the most important and fulfilling experience of their celebrity life. Key to the celebrity mom profiles is that they are separate from the reality of everyday mothering, particularly in terms of how difficult children can be and how difficult mothering can be for women. Thus, two central messages are embedded in the celebrity mom profiles: if a child is behaving badly or is difficult, it is the mother's fault; and if a mother finds mothering difficult, then something is wrong with her.

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