Feminist Politics Still Needs Motherhood
Feminist Politics Still Needs Motherhood
This chapter explains why feminists must retain and critique the institution of motherhood in order to better understand its disciplinary nature, and how it separates mothers from feminism, and women from each other and themselves. The chapter outlines the constitution of care in global politics and what the author calls the “trap of maternalism.” Staging a reading of two short film commercial advertisements that explicitly lay claim to motherhood, the author draws out signifiers of contemporary motherhood and reflects on how maternal thinking and critique of the institution of motherhood can be generative of feminist political theory. Finally, the author reflects further on the potential of maternal thinking to expand feminist notions of care in masculinized spaces.
Keywords: care, labor, institution of motherhood, maternalism, popular culture, affect, Maternal Thinking, media, resistance, feminist IR
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