Where the Aunts Are
eBook - PDF

Where the Aunts Are

Family, Feminism, and Kinship in Popular Culture

  1. 252 pages
  2. English
  3. PDF
  4. Available on iOS & Android
eBook - PDF

Where the Aunts Are

Family, Feminism, and Kinship in Popular Culture

About this book

While the aunt is one of the most iconic and beloved figures in popular culture, the societal role and import of real-life contemporary aunts are difficult to pin down. In some settings, she is the sole supporter, caregiver, or surrogate mother and exceeds her familial function as an aunt. In others, she subtly--or not so subtly--transgresses the assumed narrative of feminine identity. Surveying characters from Aunt Bee and Auntie Em to Bernie Mac's Aunt Wanda and House of Payne's Aunt Ella and countless living, breathing aunts across the country, Where the Aunts Are re-visions the ideals of family, femininity, and kinship and, in the process, offers a hopeful and progressive recognition of the multiple possibilities of womanhood in modern culture.

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Yes, you can access Where the Aunts Are by Patricia J. Sotirin,Laura L. Ellingson in PDF and/or ePUB format, as well as other popular books in Social Sciences & Cultural & Social Anthropology. We have over one million books available in our catalogue for you to explore.

Table of contents

  1. Cover
  2. Title Page, Copyright, Dedication
  3. Contents
  4. Acknowledgments
  5. Introduction: What’s Up with Aunts?
  6. 1. (Not) Like a Mother: Black and White Maternal Aunts
  7. 2. “Othered” Aunting: Race, Class, and Institutionalized Misogyny
  8. 3. Like a (Bad) Mother: Neotraditional and Malevolent Aunts
  9. 4. Wisdom and Witchcraft: Magical Aunts and Nieces
  10. 5. Eccentric Aunts: Sanity, Sexuality, and Spectacle
  11. 6. Commodifying the Aunt
  12. Conclusion: The Impact of Aunts
  13. Appendix I: Aunt Websites
  14. Appendix II: Popular Sources
  15. Notes
  16. References
  17. Index