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Full-Text Articles in Medicine and Health
Mommy, Me, And We: Why Black Mothers Have Turned To Doulas, Janessa Harris
Mommy, Me, And We: Why Black Mothers Have Turned To Doulas, Janessa Harris
Crossings: Swarthmore Undergraduate Feminist Research Journal
Maternal mortality mates have disproportionately affected black mothers for far too long due to the lack of value that black bodies hold in medical spaces. Because of this concerns voiced by black people are often disregarded and ignored until the very last minute. But what if this was changed? This paper will focus on how black mothers have worked against Western medical systems that silence our voices, but instead turn to doulas who work to make these mothers feel seen, heard, and cared for. Through this, we make birthing a careful and collective effort to turn Mommy&Me to Mommy&We.
Skin Stories And Family Feelings: The Contradictions Of Skin Picking In Mother And Daughter, Katrina Jacinto
Skin Stories And Family Feelings: The Contradictions Of Skin Picking In Mother And Daughter, Katrina Jacinto
Crossings: Swarthmore Undergraduate Feminist Research Journal
Skin picking, otherwise known as dermatillomania, is considered to be a medical disorder by the DSM-5. However, the embodied experiences of skin picking in myself and my mother do not align with the neat definitions offered by psychiatry. Through autoethnographic material and an ethnographic interview with my mother, I argue that skin picking is a bodily technique that is pathologized through stigma. In particular, I suggest that skin picking reveals the body as a polyvalent entity, in which the same features and practices take on different meanings in different bodies. This frames the discrepancies between mine, and my mother's, experiences. …