Embodying the Problem

"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