Where the Aunts Are

A mandatory read for all interested in popular culture, media, race, and gender that should be returned to again and again. Sotirin and Ellingson make iron-clad arguments about the contemporary landscape of family and feminism.

~Elizabeth Bell, Professor and Chair, Department of Women's and Gender Studies, University of South Florida

Aunts! Those much maligned women who play such an important role in our communities have at last found recognition and acknowledgment in this book. Ellingson and Sotirin have done an excellent job of placing the role of 'aunt' in our post-feminist world. Where the Aunts Are is an essential book.

~Norma Pecora, Professor Emerita, School of Media Arts and Studies, Scripps College of Communication, Ohio University

Who knew that the figure of the aunt in popular culture was so rich a subject for analysis, or could reveal so much about our culture's gender norms and values? Where the Aunts Are is a richly nuanced, feminist re-visioning of the aunt that draws out the small but myriad ways in which popular culture aunts transgress normative femininity and may even serve to reinvigorate a feminist agenda in the public sphere.

~Sharon R. Mazzarella, Editor of Girl Wide Web 2.0: Revisiting Girls, the Internet, and the Negotiation of Identity

Where the Aunts Are is an exacting examination of narratives of feminine identity, domestic life, and models of extended family. This smart, lucid book reveals how the aunt extends and transgresses normative feminine roles. Sotirin and Ellingson's expertise is on full display as they draw on a wide range of historical and cultural contexts to provide an in-depth feminist, post-structuralist analysis of the aunt as unconventional maternal substitute.

~Robin R. Means Coleman, Associate Professor of Communication Studies and of AfroAmerican and African Studies, University of Michigan, and author of Horror Noire: Blacks in American Horror Films from the 1890s to Present

... a fresh take on an underexplored topic.

~Choice

If you have ever been curious about the role of legal, biological, or voluntary aunts, pick up Where the Aunts Are. This book gives a feminist perspective on the power of women, especially that of aunts, as reflected in popular media; further, it discusses the flexible role of aunts in the nuclear family.

~Laura Marie Pope, Santa Clara University, Communication Research Trends

This volume provides a broadly researched voice in the conversation about women, their families, and opportunities for women to impact in the world.

~Dawn Gentry, Milligan College, Stone-Campbell Journal