I Am Murphy Brown: Race and Class in the Rhetorics of Single Mothers by Choice

Rhetoric Review Jul 2020

I Am Murphy Brown: Race and Class in the Rhetorics of Single Mothers by Choice

Katherine Mack University of Colorado Colorado Springs

Abstract

In the 1990s, “Murphy Brown” mothers—often unwed, older, white, and professional—could embrace their alliance with stigmatized single mothers or mark their difference from them, while simultaneously demonstrating their alignment with the dominant discourse of “family values.” Many opted for the latter, gathering under the label “Single Mothers by Choice” (SMC). Using an intersectional cultural rhetorical methodology, this article identifies the axioms of “family values” and demonstrates how they shaped SMC’s efforts to legitimize themselves through an analysis of Jane Mattes’s 1994 guidebook, Single Mothers by Choice: A Guidebook for Single Women Who Are Considering or Have Chosen Motherhood.

Journal: Rhetoric Review
Published: 2020-07-02
DOI: 10.1080/07350198.2020.1764763
Open Access: Closed
Topics: race and writing

Citation Context

Cited by in this index (0)

No articles in this index cite this work.

Cites in this index (3)

Cobos et al. (2018)

Interfacing Cultural Rhetorics: A History and a Call

Rhetoric Review
Edbauer (2005)

Unframing models of public distribution: From rhetorical situation to rhetorica…

Rhetoric Society Quarterly
Reynolds (1993)

<i>Ethos</i>as location: New sites for understanding discursive authority

Rhetoric Review

Also cites 22 works outside this index ↓

10.1080/07491409.2016.1247401

↗
10.1353/par.2003.0006

↗
10.1177/089124300014001005

↗
10.3138/9781442619098

↗
10.1525/9780520957725

↗
10.2307/j.ctt1fzhfz8

↗
Chávez Karma R. (2012)

Standing in the Intersection: Feminist Voices, Feminist Practices in Communication Studies

↗
10.1080/10570319809374617

↗
10.2307/1229039

↗
10.1177/089124300014005005

↗
10.1017/S1537592709992830

↗
10.1080/0033563032000125313

↗
10.1177/1536504215615059

↗
10.1177/0891243217743245

↗
10.1215/9780822390220

↗
10.4324/9780203141991

↗
10.1080/07491409.2017.1280326

↗
10.1177/0891243218770364

↗
10.1525/9780520963207

↗
10.4324/9781315693347

↗
10.36019/9780813591049

↗
10.1515/9780691216355

↗

CrossRef global citation count: 3 View in citation network →