"Matrophobia," a term coined by Rogers (English, U. of Maine), goes beyond fearing mothers to fearing becoming a mother and, by extension, fear of identification and separation from the maternal body. Rogers argues that matrophobia is central to women's relationships with each other in a patriarchal culture. She notes the rise of the mother as a symbol of self-sacrifice within eighteenth-century society and the resulting displacement of matrophobia as one inadequately mothered female character after another reconciles with an unworthy mother, particularly in the work of Ann Radcliffe and Jane Austen. Rogers locates evidence that women were losing contact with their physicality, a phenomenon also noted by male authors, and gives (frequently hilarious) evidence that popular media perpetuates this combination of sharp and pervasive phobia and purposeful ignorance. Annotation ©2007 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)