Misfitting Mothers: feminism, disability and motherhood

The claim that, "feminist scholarship and disability studies scholarship are natural partners" (Piepmeier, Cantrell and Maggio, np), is an increasingly common one. Over the last decade, a number of scholars (Garland-Thomson; Kafer; Lloyd; Wendell) have called for feminist thought to integr...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Robertson, Rachel
Format: Journal Article
Published: Hecate Press 2015
Online Access:http://search.informit.com.au/documentSummary;dn=286336999740490;res=IELAPA
http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/9294
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Summary:The claim that, "feminist scholarship and disability studies scholarship are natural partners" (Piepmeier, Cantrell and Maggio, np), is an increasingly common one. Over the last decade, a number of scholars (Garland-Thomson; Kafer; Lloyd; Wendell) have called for feminist thought to integrate the insights of critical disability studies and for disability studies to gain from taking a feminist approach. My interest is in how a feminist approach to motherhood can gain from disability studies. In this article, I use one particular feminist disability concept-the concept of "misfit" as elaborated by Rosemarie Garland- Thomson ("Misfits")-to demonstrate how disability theory might illuminate certain experiences of mothering.