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Consuming to Be Good: Therapeutic Ideology and Transracial Adoptive Mothers
Author(s) -
Soster Robin L.,
Tian Kelly L.,
Rose Alexander S.,
Rose Randall L.
Publication year - 2018
Publication title -
journal of consumer affairs
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.582
H-Index - 62
eISSN - 1745-6606
pISSN - 0022-0078
DOI - 10.1111/joca.12204
Subject(s) - ideology , legitimacy , mainstream , sociology , ideal (ethics) , context (archaeology) , social psychology , psychology , positive economics , political science , law , economics , politics , paleontology , biology
This study reveals the therapeutic origins of the “good mother” ideal in a rarely studied context, that of transracial adoptive mothering. Using a comparative discursive analysis supplemented by illustrative case analysis, we show that what it means to be a “good mother” in transracial adoptive mothering discourse differs significantly from the ideal established in mainstream mothering discourse. The key differences uncovered relate to publicly contested challenges to legitimacy, the experience of stigma for families adopting children of difference races, and a relative dearth of market‐based solutions to these challenges. We propose therapeutic ideology as a powerful macro‐level theoretical construct capable of explaining the self‐reinforcing cycle of mothers' anxiety, expert advice, and market‐mediated solutions.