Abstract
What do women perceive when they hear “birth”? This question is complex. Web 2.0 has offered mothers the opportunity to participate in the accumulation of text, audio, and visual data about motherhood, and the women on Mumsnet provide a plethora of rich sonic descriptions. This chapter is part summary and part collaborative critique, an arts-inspired exploration of thousands of Mumsnet threads woven into a unique narrative fabric. The women-authored materials on Mumsnet contain many perspectives and complex social analyses, which can be contextualised by broader feminist critiques of the gender power relations at the core of families and medical institutions. In doing so, this chapter locates women’s intellectual work in non-elite women-authored literature.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2017 The Author(s)
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Dokter, A. (2017). Audible Birth, Listening Women: Storytelling the Labouring Body on Mumsnet. In: Evans, J., Meehan, C. (eds) Perceptions of Pregnancy from the Seventeenth to the Twentieth Century. Genders and Sexualities in History. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-44168-9_5
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-44168-9_5
Published:
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-44167-2
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-44168-9
eBook Packages: HistoryHistory (R0)