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dc.contributor.authorWhitmarsh, Judy
dc.date.accessioned2009-01-14T22:24:15Z
dc.date.available2009-01-14T22:24:15Z
dc.date.issued2008
dc.identifier.citationChildren & Society, 22(4): 278-290.
dc.identifier.issn09510605
dc.identifier.issn10990860
dc.identifier.doi10.1111/j.1099-0860.2007.00082.x
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/2436/47436
dc.description.abstractThe bio medical expert literature, although contested, associates the use of dummies, soothers or pacifiers, with illness, dental malformation, impaired speech and language, and working-class mothering. This article suggests this negative perspective has filtered, via experts and the media, into public narratives of ‘good’ mothering. Interviews with 20 disadvantaged mothers demonstrate the complex negotiations undertaken to integrate dummy use into their personal ‘good-mothering’ narratives. Representing their hitherto ignored voices in the dummy debate allows a consideration of the context of, and influences on, dummy use. The article argues that rather than a symbol of inadequate working-class mothering, dummy use is a complex, highly negotiated, situated mothering practice.
dc.language.isoen
dc.publisherWiley InterScience.
dc.relation.urlhttp://www3.interscience.wiley.com/journal/120081330/abstract
dc.subjectChildren
dc.subjectEarly years
dc.subjectWorking classes
dc.subjectChild psychology
dc.subjectChildcare
dc.subjectChild discipline
dc.subjectParenting practice
dc.subjectMothers
dc.subjectNurseries
dc.subjectPacifiers
dc.subjectDummies
dc.titleMums, Dummies and Dirty ‘Dids’: the dummy as a symbolic representation of mothering?
dc.typeJournal article
dc.identifier.journalChildren & Society
html.description.abstractThe bio medical expert literature, although contested, associates the use of dummies, soothers or pacifiers, with illness, dental malformation, impaired speech and language, and working-class mothering. This article suggests this negative perspective has filtered, via experts and the media, into public narratives of ‘good’ mothering. Interviews with 20 disadvantaged mothers demonstrate the complex negotiations undertaken to integrate dummy use into their personal ‘good-mothering’ narratives. Representing their hitherto ignored voices in the dummy debate allows a consideration of the context of, and influences on, dummy use. The article argues that rather than a symbol of inadequate working-class mothering, dummy use is a complex, highly negotiated, situated mothering practice.


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