Embodying the Problem

The Persuasive Power of the Teen Mother

By Jenna Vinson

Rutgers University Press

The dominant narrative of teen pregnancy persuades many people to believe that a teenage pregnancy always leads to devastating consequences for a young woman, her child, and the nation in which they reside. Jenna Vinson draws on feminist and rhetorical theory to explore how pregnant and mothering teens are represented as problems in U.S. newspapers, political discourses, and teenage pregnancy prevention campaigns since the 1970s.

Vinson shows that these representations prevent a focus on the underlying structures of inequality and poverty, perpetuate harmful discourses about women, and sustain racialized gender ideologies that construct women’s bodies as sites of national intervention and control.

Embodying the Problem also explores how young mothers resist this narrative. Analyzing fifty narratives written by young mothers, the recent #NoTeenShame social media campaign, and her interviews with thirty-three young women, Vinson argues that while the stigmatization of teenage pregnancy and motherhood does dehumanize young pregnant and mothering women, it is at the same time a means for these women to secure an audience for their own messages.

More information on the author's website (https://jennavinson.com)

Embodying the Problem presents a refreshing and original argument that provides analysis of the language and visual rhetoric of public campaigns framing teenage motherhood as a problem and provides, in dramatic response, the unexplored concerns and resistant voices of teenage mothers themselves.'
Barbara Tomlinson, author of Feminism and Affect at the Scene of Argument

This myth-busting work rejects stigmatizing statistics and narratives about young motherhood that depict the young pregnant or parenting body as always only a problem. Young and young-of-color mothers emerge as fierce advocates for themselves and their children. Vinson includes voices and visions from within to tell new stories and to reveal new needs and possibilities for reproductive justice.’
Adela C. Licona, Director of the Institute for LGBT Studies, University of Arizona

A considerably impressive work of original and erudite scholarship. Midwest Book Review

Draws on feminist and rhetorical theory in a study of the creation, circulation, and reception of often-stigmatizing discourse on teenage pregnancy and motherhood; also analyzes the narratives, in resistance, of teen mothers themselves. Chronicle

Far From ‘Tragic’: Author Jenna Vinson on the Misrepresentation of Young Mothers' by Gloria Malone Rewire

Jenna Vinson's Embodying the Problem' spotlight The Page 99 Test

Jenna Vinson's Book Counters Doom-and-Gloom Narrative' by Katharine Webster Q&A with author UMass Lowell News

English professor publishes new book on shaming young mothers' by Jessica Kergo feature on book UMass Lowell Connector

Through analyzing various ways that young mothers resist the harmful narratives about them and their children, Vinson’s work binds data and stories to highlight how young parents simultaneously live within a stereotype and defy it at the same time.' Rewire

Vinson’s book reveals how feminist rhetorical activism shifts conversations at local and national levels about what society considers to be an ‘appropriate’ age for motherhood and in doing so, provides a rewarding reading experience both for scholarly purposes and for the simple pleasure of enjoying a well-written and carefully researched book. Rhetoric Society Quarterly

All in all, Embodying the Problem is a powerful and important contribution to feminist rhetorical studies and to medical rhetoric. Rhetoric Review

A strong contribution to feminist work in the field... Embodying the Problem engages with theory in an accessible way, carefully guiding readers toward an understanding of the theoretical context in both how she sets up and concludes her analyses. This book will be a valuable text in a graduate or upper-level undergraduate class on reproduction, women’s studies, health rhetorics, rhetorics of age, and/or rhetorical or qualitative methodology. Peitho

Embodying the Problem presents a refreshing and original argument that provides analysis of the language and visual rhetoric of public campaigns framing teenage motherhood as a problem and provides, in dramatic response, the unexplored concerns and resistant voices of teenage mothers themselves.'
Barbara Tomlinson, author of Feminism and Affect at the Scene of Argument

This myth-busting work rejects stigmatizing statistics and narratives about young motherhood that depict the young pregnant or parenting body as always only a problem. Young and young-of-color mothers emerge as fierce advocates for themselves and their children. Vinson includes voices and visions from within to tell new stories and to reveal new needs and possibilities for reproductive justice.’
Adela C. Licona, Director of the Institute for LGBT Studies, University of Arizona

A considerably impressive work of original and erudite scholarship. Midwest Book Review

Draws on feminist and rhetorical theory in a study of the creation, circulation, and reception of often-stigmatizing discourse on teenage pregnancy and motherhood; also analyzes the narratives, in resistance, of teen mothers themselves. Chronicle

Far From ‘Tragic’: Author Jenna Vinson on the Misrepresentation of Young Mothers' by Gloria Malone Rewire

Jenna Vinson's Embodying the Problem' spotlight The Page 99 Test

Jenna Vinson's Book Counters Doom-and-Gloom Narrative' by Katharine Webster QA with author UMass Lowell News

English professor publishes new book on shaming young mothers' by Jessica Kergo feature on book UMass Lowell Connector

Through analyzing various ways that young mothers resist the harmful narratives about them and their children, Vinson’s work binds data and stories to highlight how young parents simultaneously live within a stereotype and defy it at the same time.' Rewire

Vinson’s book reveals how feminist rhetorical activism shifts conversations at local and national levels about what society considers to be an ‘appropriate’ age for motherhood and in doing so, provides a rewarding reading experience both for scholarly purposes and for the simple pleasure of enjoying a well-written and carefully researched book. Rhetoric Society Quarterly

All in all, Embodying the Problem is a powerful and important contribution to feminist rhetorical studies and to medical rhetoric. Rhetoric Review

A strong contribution to feminist work in the field... Embodying the Problem engages with theory in an accessible way, carefully guiding readers toward an understanding of the theoretical context in both how she sets up and concludes her analyses. This book will be a valuable text in a graduate or upper-level undergraduate class on reproduction, women’s studies, health rhetorics, rhetorics of age, and/or rhetorical or qualitative methodology. Peitho

JENNA VINSON is an assistant professor of English at the University of Massachusetts, Lowell.

Preface: Embodying the Problem
1. The Role of the Teen Mother in Narratives of Teenage Pregnancy
2. Seeing Is Believing: How Visual Representations of Women Established the Problem of Teenage Pregnancy
3. Challenging Experts, Commonplaces, and Statistics: Teen Mothers’ Counter-narratives
4. Resisting Stigmatizing Pregnancy Prevention Initiatives: The #NoTeenShame Campaign
5. Confronting the Stranger on the Street: Embodied Exigence in Everyday Rhetorical Situations
Conclusion
Acknowledgments
Appendix A
Appendix B
Appendix C
Notes
Bibliography
Index

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