Hallstein Edits Special Issue of Women’s Studies in Communication
D. Lynn O’Brien Hallstein, associate professor of rhetoric at BU College of General Studies, has edited a special issue of Women’s Studies in Communication, a journal that provides a feminist forum for diverse research, reviews, and commentary addressing the relationships between communication and gender. Due to her expertise in the rhetoric around motherhood and mothering–in particular, celebrity motherhood and the pressure to bounce back to a postpartum bikini-ready body–Hallstein was the special guest editor of an issue devoted to “mothering rhetoric.”
“The issue explores mothering and motherhood within women’s studies in communication,” says Hallstein, who wrote the issue’s introductory essay. “As far as I know, it is the first time a journal has devoted an entire issue to the topic of mothering rhetorics.”
Hallstein’s introductory essay draws from the work of Ashley Mack’s dissertation, “Disciplining Mommy: Rhetorics of Reproduction in Contemporary Maternity Culture,” to define mothering rhetorics: the rhetorics of reproduction (rhetorics about the reproductive function of women/mothers) and reproducing rhetorics (the rhetorical reproduction of ideological systems and logics of contemporary culture).
Hallstein writes in her introductory essay, “Even though motherhood and mothering are clearly now important intellectual topics within communication generally and specifically within rhetorical studies, no communication journal has yet devoted a sustained look at how exploring mothering rhetorics expands our understanding of communication studies and rhetoric, nor how rhetorical methods or concepts can also help us better understand mothering, motherhood, communication, and gender. Thus, this special issue on “Mothering Rhetorics” …. seeks to begin to fill this gap for scholars and educators interested in the study of mothering rhetorics in their historical and contemporary permutations.”
The issue includes essays on “Michelle Obama, Mom-In-Chief: The Racialized Rhetorical Contexts of Maternity,” “Rhetorics of Unwed Motherhood and Shame,” Fixing Food to Fix Families: Feeding Risk Discourse and the Family Meal,” and more.