Book Release: Moms Gone Mad: Motherhood and Madness, Oppression and Resistance

Demeter Press is pleased to announce the release of: Moms Gone Mad: Motherhood and Madness, Oppression and Resistance edited by Gina Wong

Impetus for this landmark collection emerged from the extraordinary success of the Moms Gone Mad: Motherhood and Madness Oppression and Resistance International Conference in New York City, 2009.  Cultural meanings extolled on motherhood are often overlooked and many women struggle and personalize issues to themselves and remain silent. This anthology synthesizes and roars out marginalized experiences of moms in a culture that relegates unconventional experiences to 'craziness' and her own 'madness'. From a feminist perspective, scholars in motherhood across disciplines and mothers steeped in the experience have come together to capture multifarious experiences of oppression to resistance in a groundbreaking anthology that embodies motherhood empowerment. This book enhances dialogue and revolutionizes our understanding of motherhood constructions and experiences by exploring the underbelly of mothering and subjugated experiences such as women's inhumanity to women and deconstructing notions of 'mommy' in literature/media that are oppressive. Critical examinations  of the 'good mother', 'mother-shame', and 'mother-guilt', growing up a daughter of depression, body image and disordered eating in motherhood, postpartum depression are explored as well as experiences such as single motherhood, mothering a child with disability, and childlessness; and perceived anomalies such as losing a child to suicide and postpartum psychosis and more. Dr. Gina Wong is an Associate Professor in the Graduate Centre for Applied Psychology at Athabasca University, Canada. She is a Registered Psychologist who specializes and publishes/presents nationally and internationally on maternal mental health and wellness. Gina directs a counselling and consulting practice devoted to adolescent girls and women. She is a Board of Director with the Motherhood Initiative for Research and Community Involvement and Demeter Press and is an Advisory Board member with the Journal of Motherhood Initiative. She is the Alberta Co-coordinator with Postpartum Support International and directs the Disordered Eating and Body Image Treatment (DEBIT) Program. Gina resides in Edmonton, Alberta with her two young daughters.

Fall 2012 / $34.95 pb / ISBN 978-0-9866671-7-6 / 6 x 9 / 240 pp.    Please visit our website at www.demeterpress.org/momsgonemad.html  for details on how to order this new title! Disclosure: I am getting a complementary membership to MIRCI and subscription to the journal in return for posting these updates. It is, however, something I would have agreed to do for free because I think their work is so wonderful.