tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37589721331585843.post4014262825395700723..comments2024-03-26T11:33:59.219-06:00Comments on Religion in American History: Motherhood, Morality, and, Ultimately, Madness: My Thoughts on the Casey Anthony CasePaul Harveyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13881964303772343114noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37589721331585843.post-59188911602476077472011-07-13T13:43:59.784-06:002011-07-13T13:43:59.784-06:00This is the smartest thing I've read on the me...This is the smartest thing I've read on the media hoopla surrounding this case. Well done. I think your evocation of O.J. is right on, too.<br /><br />Great comments from Kelly and Judith as well. Thanks!Historiannhttp://historiann.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37589721331585843.post-79579065655128694222011-07-11T18:33:33.413-06:002011-07-11T18:33:33.413-06:00Thanks for starting a conversation on this complic...Thanks for starting a conversation on this complicated and wrenching case. I do think that it makes sense to try to keep issues of race in the mix when trying to understand the cultural impact of such media events, even as you highlight gender issues. It doesn't seem incidental to me that Anthony claimed that a (black?) Puerto Rican nanny took her child or that Susan Smith claimed a black man had carjacked her (and the resulting police sketch looked like an ad for a minstrel show). There are, of course, other similar cases ("runaway bride's" fake Hispanic kidnapper; Charles Stewart's fake black murderer of his wife, to name a few). What roles do race and gender (as intersectional categories) play in these cases when we think about the deployment of images of men and women of color stealing, killing, kidnaping white women and children?Judith Weisenfeldhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00540184099447580269noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37589721331585843.post-83117980100130586952011-07-11T06:59:29.553-06:002011-07-11T06:59:29.553-06:00Charity, Ed Ingebretsen's At Stake has a whole...Charity, Ed Ingebretsen's At Stake has a whole chapter on Susan Smith; she emerges as one of his many examples of rhetoric of monsters in public culture. She becomes monstrous, of course, because she is mother who murders her kids. Smith was married with two small children, so the morality tale that emerged was *horror* over failed performance of normative motherhood. Anthony becomes monstrous because of gendered expectations, which you note in this lovely post.<br /><br />I had a student last year write a paper about mothers who kill. The students had to present their work, and my whole class was flabbergasted by the student's topic choice. What can we learn from the sensational cataloging of "bad" mothers, gender expectations!Kelly J. Bakerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14328894784072518452noreply@blogger.com