Amanda Koontz Anthony

Infant-feeding consumerism in the age of intensive mothering and risk society

The ideologies of intensive mothering and risk society place increasing burden on mothers to make critical choices regarding infant feeding that are understood as having irreversible consequences for their childrens long-term health and emotional well-being. Although research has examined consequences of these ideologies on mothers’ decisions to breastfeed or formula-feed their infants, little has focused on consumer decisions regarding formulas, baby food and feeding-related items. This article examines symbolic meanings attached to infant food and feeding-related consumer items among first-time mothers in the United States. Results indicate broad categories of baby-oriented consumerism—qualities and characteristics mothers sought for their babies through feeding-related consumer behaviors—and mother-oriented consumerism—qualities and characteristics mothers sought for themselves through consumer behaviors. Baby-oriented consumerism included health, comfort, taste and development, and mother-oriented consumerism included knowledge/control, compliance, convenience, frugality, relationships and self-image.

RACIALIZED AUTHENTICATION: Constructing Representations of the Florida Highwaymen

This article explores how art world professionals and cultural publicists construct representations of a group of “rediscovered” black artists, who painted from the end of the Jim Crow era to the present. Examining their writings, statements from interviews, and their interactions with audiences at public events, I show how they represented the artists as both exotic self-taught artists and achievers of the American Dream. I introduce the term “racialized authentication” to frame a branch of racial rhetoric through which the various actors draw from both traditional racial stereotypes and new racism ideology to construct authentic artists. In conclusion, I address how these findings have implications for the integration of contemporary research on race and sociological studies of art worlds.

Good, Bad, and Extraordinary Mothers Infant Feeding and Mothering in African American Mothers’ Breastfeeding Narratives

Dominant discourses promote breastfeeding as essential to “good mothering,” shown in research to set a difficult standard that many white mothers internalize. Little is known about African American mothers’ perceptions of the connection between breastfeeding and mothering ideals. We analyzed perceptions of the relationship between breastfeeding and formula feeding and mothering through in-depth semistructured interviews with 22 predominantly middle-class African American mothers in the southeastern United States who breastfeed. One-third of participants upheld the dominant ideology that breastfeeding is required for good mothering, constructing formula feeding as lazy and selfish. Two-thirds associated breastfeeding with “extraordinary mothering,” exceeding good mothering through additional hard work, self-sacrifice, and dedication. These participants were divided, with half (one-third of total) stating that mothers who formula feed are also good mothers and half (one-third of total sample) expressing ambivalence toward formula. Both groups acknowledged structural barriers and personal circumstances that prevent some mothers from breastfeeding, and therefore they either withheld or were conflicted about applying judgment. These findings confirm that although a powerful cultural association between breastfeeding and good mothering is evident, it is not uniform across race and class.

Discrediting Identity Work: Understandings of Intimate Partner Violence by Transgender Survivors

ABSTRACT This study explores how individuals can actively work to discredit identity work. We examine eighteen transgender victims’ accounts of intimate partner violence (IPV), providing insight into how abusers undermine victims’ constructions of self-concepts. Our findings illustrate two primary strategies of discrediting identity work: altercasting and targeting sign-vehicles, including controlling through props. Empirically examining the accounts of transgender IPV victims’ experiences contributes to addressing a serious gap in research on transgender IPV victims, while expanding theoretical understandings of processes of discrediting identity work within the context of abusive intimate relationships.

Maintaining Art-World Membership: Self-taught Identity Work of the Florida Highwaymen

In this article, we examine how a group of aging black artists, labeled The Florida Highwaymen, maintained membership in a self-taught art world. Based on fieldwork, interviews, and Web sites, we analyze how the artists constructed identities in ways that enabled them to continue benefiting from the art world, even when they appeared in violation of membership criteria or codes. Such identity work involved affiliating with the artist collective, aligning with the self-taught identity code, and denying and reframing code violations. Rather than adopting racist imagery employed by art-world insiders, they drew from color-blind tactics and cultural discourses to maintain membership in the self-taught art world, and their dignity. Our study demonstrates the usefulness of an identity work approach for the sociology of art worlds and has implications for exploring how people construct selves to maintain membership benefits in other social arenas.

Diversifying Feminist Ethnographers’ Dilemmas and Solutions

Avishai, Gerber, and Randles (2013a, 394) describe the feminist dilemma as arising when established “feminist analytic frameworks clash with observations.” All three felt this dilemma when conducting research on groups commonly thought to be “conservative” or “nonfeminist.” They felt unable to reconcile what they imagined was the feminist imperative to privilege the voice of participants with their stated feminist political commitments. In spite of their expectations of male dominance and support of a patriarchal system in the field, they interpreted some of their observations as reflecting feminist ideals. However, they were uncomfortable drawing such conclusions, as they felt pressure to conform to an institutionalized orthodoxy of feminist thought. As self-identified feminists, they worried how other feminists would evaluate their work. To help better navigate this dilemma, the authors encourage “institutional reflexivity,” or critical reflection of how feminist theoretical and methodological orthodoxies “constrain and enable interpretations of the world.” They also encourage feminists to privilege their analytic interpretations over their political projects when this dilemma arises. By introducing the notions of “the feminist dilemma” and “institutional reflexivity,” the authors provide a language to interrogate not only the issues

Rules of the road: doing fieldwork and negotiating interactions with hesitant public figures

In this article, we address negotiating interactions with hesitant participants who are public figures, yet do not traditionally fit within the category of the advantaged. We target new field researchers and rusty veterans by offering an applied approach to: (1) preparing for the field; (2) managing interactions with hesitant participants via finding common ground while drawing lines, connecting with key informants, and expanding on public information; and (3) working through failed interviews. We discuss the importance of power relationships, positionality, and ethical standards, particularly in relation to negotiating similarities and differences between researchers and participants.

(In)authenticity work: Constructing the realm of inauthenticity through Thomas Kinkade

Although we know that authenticity work can add value to cultural products, little research explores efforts to claim the inauthenticity of products in commercial markets. The question arises, how does the critical reception of a popular culture phenomenon employ a form of authenticity work to determine the cultural products eligible – or ineligible – for the status of “authentic?” This research seeks to answer this question through a comprehensive content analysis of 328 documents from 1998 to 2012 related to the late artist Thomas Kinkade. We put forth the term inauthenticity work to explain how cultural intermediaries defined cultural products as antithetical to authenticity. Even in the face of immense commercial success, intermediaries constructed Kinkade’s work as exemplifying inauthenticity, defining his work as mass produced, insincere, escapist, and oppositional to high art. Such inauthenticity work reveals that even if there is greater variance in cultural products eligible for authentication, intermediaries uphold culture boundaries through critically maintaining a cultural realm of inauthenticity.