Mothers: The Invisible Instruments of Health Promotion

Abstract

In this article, I focus on two problematic aspects of British health-promotion campaigns regarding feeding children, particularly regarding breastfeeding and obesity. The first of these is that health-promotion campaigns around “lifestyle” issues dehumanize mothers with their imagery or text, stemming from the ongoing undervaluing and objectification of mothers and women. Public health-promotion instrumentalizes mothers as necessary components in achieving its aims, while at the same time undermining their agency as persons and interlocutors by tying “mother” to particular images. This has a double effect: first, it excludes mothers who do not fit the campaign picture of a mother; second, it encloses those who do (even vaguely) fit the picture into an objectified image of motherhood that is defined by and subject to the dominant white, heteropatriarchal gaze. The second problem is that campaigns place unjustified demands on mothers, which stem from a misinterpretation of the maternal duty to benefit. I argue that nutrition-related health concerns regarding children are improperly framed as individual failures of maternal duty, rather than as failures of a system to function correctly. These arguments ultimately support shifting the focus of responsibility for issues around childhood nutrition away from mothers and back toward policymakers.

We cannot keep doing what we have always done and expect that things will be different: A scoping review of the lifestyle drift concept

“…Finally, the term "lifestyle" may also be too narrow in terms of the range of behaviours that appear to be implicated. The studies in our review covered a range of issues, such as self-care and parenting (27,35), that may not t well under the term "lifestyle choices." In cases where there is a drift to either targeted programming or healthcare and clinical interventions, this is also not well-characterized by the term "lifestyle".…”

Gender Role Beliefs and Ontologization of Mothers: A Moderated Mediation Analysis

“…Motherhood serves as a popular talking point for many different political campaigns and social discourses in different societies (e.g., Park et al 2015;Pugh 2019; Van der Klein et al 2012;Yasmine and Sukkar 2019). However, in these discourses, mothers may be objectified or dehumanized as a consequence of focusing on their bodies and biological reproductive functions, as well as of being treated as passive recipients for passing on instructions (e.g., Beech et al 2020;Goldenberg et al 2007;MacKay 2021).…”

“…This lack of progress has been found to be a consequence of a variety of factors related to countryspecific policies and gendered beliefs about mothers' roles and responsibilities (Budig et al 2012(Budig et al , 2016; see also Cukrowska-Torzewska and Matysiak 2020 for a meta-analysis). As for gendered assumptions about parenting (e.g., Hays 1996), biological mothers absorbed in caring roles tend to be perceived as being more competent and proper compared to other targets of mothers, e.g., working mothers, lesbian mothers, and stepmothers (DiLapi 1989;Johnston and Swanson 2003;MacKay 2021;Valiquette-Tessier et al 2016, 2019. The moral standard of the intensive mothering mandate (Hays 1996;Weaver and Coleman 2005) describes people's expectations that mothers are the most competent parent to satisfy children's needs and, therefore, they should devote all their time, energy, resources, and efforts to their children (Ganong and Coleman 1995, p. 2).…”

Five Coffin Nails to Informed Consent: An Autoethnography of Suffering Complications in Breastfeeding

“…Apart from information provision and understanding, there is also the issue of a highly moralized breastfeeding discourse that affects informed consent via different routes (relevant to coffin nails 4 and 5). When it comes to feeding babies, breastfeeding is promoted vigorously (MacKay, 2021). It is portrayed as superior to formula-feeding due to its positive influences on the health of newborns (e.g.…”