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Epilogue: The New “New Momism” B ecause this is a book about representations of women, rather than women themselves, I have found myself in the ironic position of feeling like a part of the system that actually silences these marginal figures. Susan Smith never gave an interview after her arrest, even once the trial was over, the gag order was lifted, and she was behind bars for decades to come. She did not testify in her own defense. Bill Howard, the judge at her trial, described her as “very much a mystery,” even to those present in the courtroom; she spoke only to affirm that she understood the charges against her, and she generally displayed a flat, dissociated affect during the trial.1 Once she stopped lying, she has had no public voice. She is like a screen on which any of us can project our own beliefs, which is why there have been so many “Susans” in the headlines in the past two decades. To remedy this, my original plan for this Epilogue was to give Susan Smith a space to speak for herself. I have been in written contact with Susan Smith, off and on, for seven years. When I first started this project as a doctoral dissertation, I wrote her a letter in prison. Ms. Smith agreed to answer the questions I sent her, and she signed the required consent form. She writes me short notes every now and then from her cell at Leath Correctional Institution in South Carolina. She has large, loopy, girlish handwriting, and she often punctuates sentences with smiley faces (even before “emoticons” became popular). In her letters, she is always polite, even sweet—she drew me a picture of Mickey Mouse when I had to flee Hurricane Katrina. Even though we’d just begun our correspondence at the time, she expressed what sounded like genuine relief that I had evacuated New Orleans safely, and she assured me that she had donated what little money she could to help the victims. She is well aware of the many negative images of her, and she was clearly cautious with me, as well. She asked that I be “patient” with her, and she told me that she is “proud” of me “for getting this far with [my] education.” Many of her letters are signed, “May God bless you! Love, Susan.”2 Epilogue: The New “New Momism” 187 Through this correspondence and from some of her current friends and acquaintances, I know something of what Susan Smith’s life behind bars is like. After her trial, she was on suicide watch in a solitary cell for two months, and then she was moved to the prison general population without incident. She tried to make some friends, or pen pals, by posting an advertisement on “WriteaPrisoner.com,” but her posting caused such a sensation that the site crashed and she removed her query.3 When I first contacted her, she was taking a psychology course and was concerned about doing well on her final exam. Her friend, Reverend Tom Currie, indicated to me that she has taken other college courses while behind bars. A former fellow inmate told me that Susan Smith was on the board for program affairs at the prison, and that she was involved in other activities at Leath. Smith also apparently gets quite a bit of mail. As is to be expected, she has “good days and bad days like everyone else,” and she often feels “down” and “overwhelmed” by “issues” from her past. I know from her friend and chaplain that she has thought quite a bit about postpartum depression, but, unfortunately, I do not know this from Susan Smith herself. Over the course of our several-year correspondence, she never answered the questions I sent her, and she never invited me to the prison for an in-person interview. But she mentioned the questions in every single letter. I learned quickly that if a few months went by and I did not hear from her, things were not going well, and she would write me when she was feeling up to it. In a Christmas card from 2006, she wrote: “Things have been rough for me. . . . I haven’t forgotten you so please don’t think that. . . . Don’t give up on me yet!”4 I did not give up on Susan Smith, but unfortunately, it seems that she gave up on me. She did consider giving me more access; I...

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