Marissa Rhodes

Marissa Rhodes

Contributor

Marissa is a PhD candidate in History and teaching assistant at the University at Buffalo. Her dissertation focuses on wet-nursing in 18th-century London and Philadelphia. She is also a wife and mother of two. She is an active member and admin of the Holistic Parenting Network of Western New York and is addicted to history and true crime podcasts.

History

Poking Holes in Political Memes: History, the Welfare State, and the Trope of the Founding Fathers

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An elderly man behind me in the checkout line at the grocery store asked me what I do. When I told him I’m a PhD candidate in history, he commented that understanding history better would really help this country to get “back on track.” I braced myself for a speech about the greatness of the… Read more →

History

Mommy Wars of Yore: Classism and its Casualties

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Most of us are familiar with the Mommy Wars. The Internet is the battlefield, and woman is pitted against woman in a ruthless competition to out-mother each other by breastfeeding longer, Pinteresting better, and home birthing harder. Critics point out that mothers are feeling more pressure than ever before to be certain kinds of mothers, and… Read more →

Health and Wellness

Milk Sharing: What History Can Teach Us

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Milk sharing has been in the news lately. In 2013, Nationwide Children’s Hospital in Columbus, OH analyzed over 100 samples of breast milk being sold online and found that 10% of the samples were contaminated with cow’s milk. Almost 75% of the samples contained disease-causing bacteria, presumably linked to poor collection and storage practices.1 As… Read more →