Locating the ‘invisible’ Mum: Exploring maternal selfie practices

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Abstract

This article draws on ten semi-structured interviews with mothers about their maternal selfie practices in order to explore how they use and navigate the form in relation to their motherhood identities and experiences. Whilst work on the form is still emerging, we examine the claim that maternal selfies offer space for a uniquely subjective expression/ depiction of motherhood. As part of this, we explore how discussions of their selfie practices – and appraisals of the cultural circulation of the maternal selfie - resist and (re)produce discourses on acceptable digital and cultural paradigms of motherhood. The themes which emerged from this data were 1) the maternal selfie as empowerment 2) authenticity as regulatory discourse 3) the risks of negative affect. In drawing on work on neoliberal and intensive mothering frames, the article examines how the increasing emphasis (in digital cultures in particular) on displaying the ‘messy realities’ of motherhood (Orton-Johnson, 2017: 9) are implicated within the surveillance and self-surveillance of maternal visibility in ways which may (further) delimit the possibilities for maternal self-expression.
Original languageEnglish
JournalJournal of Gender Studies
Publication statusAccepted/In press - 18 Sep 2023

Keywords

  • Motherhood
  • Selfie
  • Subjectivity
  • judgement
  • Intensive mothering

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