A new book edited by two York grad students explores the diverse ways that mothers, whether or not they themselves identity as “feminist,” inspire feminist consciousness in their daughters and sons will launch Tuesday.
The interdisciplinary collection, Mother of Invention: How Our Mothers Influenced Us As Feminist Academics and Activists (Demeter Press), edited by PhD candidates in the Graduate Program in Gender, Feminist and Women’s Studies Vanessa Reimer and Sarah Sahagian, will launch June 25, from 7:30 to 9pm, at the Pantages Hotel, 200 Victoria St., Toronto.
The book features creative and scholarly contributions from feminist academics, activists, writers and artists from different educational backgrounds, places and walks of life. While not an exclusive celebration of maternal relations, this collection provides an antidote to matrophobia and mother-blaming by critically exploring and affirming the myriad of challenges and complexities that constitute motherwork.
It explores how the mothering of feminist daughters and sons intersects with issues of gender, sexuality, disability, ethnicity, racialization, citizenship, religion, economic class, education and socio-historical location. Collectively these essays explore the centrality of intergenerational matrilineal narratives in shaping feminist consciousness, they deconstruct dominant ideologies of patriarchal motherhood and womanhood, and they challenge the notion that there is a formulaic way to raise feminist daughters and sons, or a singular “correct” way to engage in feminist maternal practice
To order the book in North American, contact the Demeter Press distributor, Brunswick Books, at 416-703-3598 or orders@brunswickbooks.ca.