Not Our Kind of Girl

Unraveling the Myths of Black Teenage Motherhood

Bibliographic Data

ID23398704
AuthorsElaine Bell Kaplan (corresponding author)
Year1997
Pages265
Publication date1997-12-31
Open AccessNo
TypeBOOK
VenueNot Our Kind of Girl (SOURCE_BOOK)
PublisherUniversity of California Press (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1525/9780520918986
OpenAlexW2092383096
Open LibraryOL29712031M
ISBN9780520918986
LanguageEN
Citations received106

One of the most worrisome images in America today is that of the teenage mother. For the African-American community, that image is especially troubling: All the problems of the welfare system seem to spotlight the black teenage mom. Elaine Bell Kaplan's affecting and insightful book dispels common perceptions of these young women. Her interviews with the women themselves, and with their mothers and grandmothers, provide a vivid picture of lives caught in the intersection of race, class, and gender. Kaplan challenges the assumption conveyed in the popular media that the African-American community condones teen pregnancy, single parenting, and reliance on welfare. Especially telling are the feelings of frustration, anger, and disappointment expressed by the mothers and grandmothers Kaplan interviewed. And in listening to teenage mothers discuss their problems, Kaplan hears first-hand of their misunderstandings regarding sex, their fraught relationships with men, and their difficulties with the educational system--all factors that bear heavily on their status as young parents. Kaplan's own experience as an African-American teenage mother adds a personal dimension to this book, and she offers substantial proposals for rethinking and reassessing the class factors, gender relations, and racism that influence black teenagers to become mothers.

Art · Developmental psychology · Girl · Computer Science · Psychology · Youth Education and Societal Dynamics · Adolescent · Adolescent girls · African American teenage mothers · African american youth · African americans · Afro-American teenage mothers · Case studies · Études de cas · Family & Relationships · Family/Marriage · Grossesse chez l'adolescente · Mères adolescentes noires américaines · Motherhood · Parenting · Pregnancy in Adolescence · Pregnancy, adolescent · Social sciences · Sociology · Sociology & Social History · Teenage pregnancy · united states

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