Mothers, Sex, and Sexuality

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.

Author: Michelle Walks
Publisher: Demeter Press
Published: 06/25/2020
Pages: 230
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 1.00lbs
Size: 8.90h x 6.00w x 0.70d
ISBN13: 9781772582222
ISBN10: 1772582220
BISAC Categories:
- Social Science | Women's Studies
- Social Science | Human Sexuality (see also Psychology | Human Sexuality)
- Literary Criticism | Feminist

About the Author
Dr Holly Zwalf is a queer solo parent by choice who lives in the Australian bush. She has a PhD in feminist kink, is the coordinator of Rainbow Families Qld, and is a filmmaker, poet, and freelance journalist. Michelle Walks is a queer femme Momma who lives in Vancouver, British Columbia. Dr. 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 living in the glorious Pacific Northwest. She has become a reclusive writer in her third age, embedded deeply in nature.