Kim Akass

Motherhood and Myth-Making: Despatches from the frontline of the US Mommy wars

Looking at the acres of newsprint dedicated to mothering it is clear that, as a society, we view childrearing as one of the most important jobs a woman can do. Everyone has an opinion. For example, mothers should not work, as children of working women are more likely to be overweight and less educationally able. Mothers that do stay-at-home should not over-protect their children for fear of tying them to their apron strings. Women should have their children early, in case their eggs become stale, but women should not have their children too early, as the state cannot afford to support teenage mothers. And single motherhood should be avoided at all costs, because everybody knows that single mothers are a sure fire route to juvenile delinquency. Thank goodness the media is there to regularly give guidance on what is the best way to mother. Or is it really that simple? Is it possible that the agenda behind mothering advice is less than helpful; more an instruction manual on what suits society than what is best for our mothers and children? Consider this: over the past decade the American media have been full of stories about a phenomenon known as the mommy wars. Ignited by a New York Times article “The opt-out revolution” (Lisa Belkin 2003), it preyed on maternal guilt, pitted stay-at-home mothers against working ones, reanimated old misogynist beliefs about women’s rightful place and inspired passionate debate across America. Seven years on, it looks as if Britain has become caught up in the battle as The Observer’s Lucy Cavendish writes from the viewpoint of a “self-confessed ‘slack mother’” reporting “from the frontline on why motherhood has become such a hot topic” (Lucy Cavendish 2010). Deploying the same warmongering terminology as earlier US news reports, Cavendish’s article goes on:

The show that refused to die: the rise and fall of AMC's The Killing

AMCs The Killing (2011–2014) is notable as the ‘show that refused to die.’ Cancelled and resurrected three times, migrating from basic cable distributor AMC to streaming service Netflix, The Killing stands as a good example of how series are increasingly being bought and sold in a rapidly changing television landscape desperate for original content. With particular attention to the way motherhood is represented in the both Forbrydelsen (2007–2012), and The Killing, this article asks: do nationally and culturally specific changes to the narrative of this European acquisition render the US adapted version redundant in Europe?