Rocking The Cradle
Lesbian Mothers: A Challenge in Family Living
Gillian E. Hanscombe; Jackie Foster
Rocking the Cradle is a fascinating historical document focusing on lesbian mothers. Now reis- sued with a new introduction, it was indeed the first book of its kind, one that presented the diverse lives of lesbian mothers from an affirmative perspective. As with Rafkin’s volume, this is a book with a feminist methodology and no pretense to formal science. Some lesbian mothers in Great Britain in the late 1970s speak of their experiences from their own perspectives, using their own definitions of self and situation. The authors, themselves lesbians, intersperse the personal stories of the mothers with their own commentary which aims at challenging and refuting myths about lesbians in general, and lesbian mothers in particular. The varieties of experience presented in this book represent its strength. There are lesbians who are mothers from heterosexual marriage, one valiant rural isolated lesbian couple who determinedly sought artificial insemination at a time when such acts were rare among lesbians, and lesbians who had heterosexual intercourse in order to become pregnant. There is one lesbian mother who lives with her husband, is out to him as a lesbian, and who has reconstituted her family so that it includes both the father of the children and her female partner. It is clear that lesbians who want to be parents have challenged stereotypical notions of ‘family.’ This makes the book a useful text for any course in which a feminist analysis of the concept and meaning of family, family systems, their nature and construction are the focus of inquiry.
The book is weakest in its uncritical approach to the question of what it means for lesbians to be mothers, particularly mothers of boy children. The responses of some of the mothers in this book foreshadow the more serious questions raised in Politics of the Heart. With this cheer-leading attitude, Rocking the Cradle is clearly representative of the development of the lesbian feminist movement. The book represents a period in which it was necessary to take a corrective, anti-homophobic stance: whatever lesbians wish to do is possible; and lesbians can always and, of course, be good mothers if they choose to parent. ~ Laura S. Brown, NWSA Journal, Vol. 1, No. 1 (Autumn, 1988)
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Details
| ISBN | 9780932870179 |
| Genre | Parenting; LGBT Studies/Social Sciences |
| Publication Date | May-82 |
| Publisher | Alyson Publications |
| Format | Trade Paperback |
| No. of Pages | 153 |
| Language | English |
| Rating | NotRated |
| Subject | Artificial Insemination, Human; Custody Of Children; Lesbian Mothers; Lesbians; Social Science / Lesbian Studies |
| BookID | 10804 |
