John Sutherland on the best way to sell books - and policies - in the US
Nothing measures more precisely the gulf between the two great English-speaking communities than the word they use for their closest family member. Whether you say Mom/Mommy or Mum/Mummy distinguishes two wholly different worlds.
American politicians know that motherhood is a royal route to election. One of the strangest children's books, in this longest of American pre-election seasons, is Why Mommy is a Democrat by Jeremy Zilber and illustrator Yuliya Firsova. This liberal primer depicts a happy, one-parent, squirrel family whose political heart is in the right place - well left of centre. "Democrats make sure we all share our toys, just like mommy does," declares one page. In the background, a cigar-smoking plutocrat and his fur-coated (can it be squirrel fur?) wife strut past a homeless person, hands stuck firmly in pockets. Somehow one can't see Why Mummy's Voting New Labour making quite the same splash in the kiddies' section at Waterstone's .
The "Mommy" tag is routinely attached to American books targeting the highly profitable Dick-and-Jane market. Most aim to render the bad things of life bearable, or at least comprehensible, to the infant mind.
Mommy books (there are more than 35,000 listed on Amazon.com) will not shrink from even the worst things: for example, When Mommy Had a Mastectomy, Mommy Has Cancer and My Mommy Has Aids. More tricky than catastrophic are: My Daddy is Jewish and My Mommy is Christian, Heather Has Two Mommies and Mommy, Why Are People Different Colors?
There are any number of mommy manuals to help the child adjust to the post-Goldilocks realities of contemporary family life: Mommy Works, Daddy Works, My Mommy Wears Army Boots, Mommy Has a Tattoo, When Mommy and Daddy Divorce. Another subdivision gets philosophical and theological: Mommy, What's "Died"?, Mommy, Why Did Jesus Have to Die? And there are hundreds dealing, graphically, with what used to be called the "facts of life": for instance, When You Were Inside Mommy.
The word "mommy", in addition to its dog-whistle effect on maternal book-buyers, has generated furious feminist debate. For the unenchanted, the "mommy track" is a one-way road to old-fashioned servitude. Chances are that mothers will never get back on the career track. So what if www.salary.com calculates that the full-time mom is worth $138,095 (up 3 per cent from last year) - that doesn't wash any dishes.
A recent American Journal of Sociology survey reported that "Moms were half as likely to be hired as childless women or men with or without kids. Moms were offered $11,000 less in starting pay than non-moms."
It's the Curse of the Mommy, as Cathy Crimmins wittily entitles her jeremiad. Or, put another way: Why are you Underpaid, Overworked, Prozacked and Going Crazy, Mommy? And Are You Going to Vote Democrat in November 2008?
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