This research makes a contribution to the current scholarship within feminist, gender, and sexuality studies that has room for greater exploration. Scholarship on queer parenting is burgeoning, yet, it exists in a silo, as is the current literature on lesbian pop culture representations and butch lesbian identity. The issue with the latter literature, is that much of it is out of date and requires greater analytical details, particularly intersectional analysis. Bridging these fields of study, this unique analysis discursively traces pop culture representations of butch lesbian parents. Specifically, I contribute to the current research in three ways. First, little feminist research has been carried out on motherhood in recent years. There
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Equally important, intersectional analyses within the current data are insufficient. Research must also respond to the changing political and cultural conditions within the last 30 years. Second, continuing previous lines of inquiry, I extend research on pop culture representations of lesbians in considering discourses of gender and other marginalized identities. Last, applying a Foucauldian lens to the current research raises the question this dissertation aims to answer: How does pop culture discourse construct knowledge of butch lesbian mothers?
A Gap in the Research
Contemporary research does not grant significant attention to motherhood studies or butch lesbians, and the study of lesbian families is a burgeoning subject, which has been developing over the past 30 years. Early research on lesbian motherhood, which largely aims to demonstrate their competency, overlooks how their sexuality factors into their experiences of …show more content…
These visual and verbal discourses reflect the socio-politics of current culture (Finnegan 2003; Landau 2009; Mitchell 1994). Yet, of the existing literature, the focus on textual analysis rarely encompasses an analysis that considers images in conjunction with text (Landau 2009). Verbal and visual text constitute discourse, so this is not a holistic approach. A focus on textual analysis excludes butch lesbians because, with few exceptions, mainstream portrayals of lesbians are feminine (Urquhart 2014). Indeed, there is a long history of pop culture ignoring butch lesbians (Ciasullo 2001). The exclusion of butch lesbians serves a biopedagogical function. Biopedagogy operates through cultural texts and discourse to produce and disseminate knowledge about how we should inhabit our bodies and behave, in accordance with the expectation we conform to and embody normativity (Chandler and Rice 2013; Foucault 1978). The absence of butch lesbians in pop culture, in particular, butch mothers, suggests lesbians should not inhabit butch bodies or behave butch, and that mothers do not reside butch bodies. The absence of butch mothers in media also causes a division between lesbians and “ideas of family, long-term relationships, child raising, and stable romance” (Pullen 2013, 1). Public attitudes impact public policies that legislate and discriminate against lesbian mothers (for a review of policies in Canada,
Equally important, intersectional analyses within the current data are insufficient. Research must also respond to the changing political and cultural conditions within the last 30 years. Second, continuing previous lines of inquiry, I extend research on pop culture representations of lesbians in considering discourses of gender and other marginalized identities. Last, applying a Foucauldian lens to the current research raises the question this dissertation aims to answer: How does pop culture discourse construct knowledge of butch lesbian mothers?
A Gap in the Research
Contemporary research does not grant significant attention to motherhood studies or butch lesbians, and the study of lesbian families is a burgeoning subject, which has been developing over the past 30 years. Early research on lesbian motherhood, which largely aims to demonstrate their competency, overlooks how their sexuality factors into their experiences of …show more content…
These visual and verbal discourses reflect the socio-politics of current culture (Finnegan 2003; Landau 2009; Mitchell 1994). Yet, of the existing literature, the focus on textual analysis rarely encompasses an analysis that considers images in conjunction with text (Landau 2009). Verbal and visual text constitute discourse, so this is not a holistic approach. A focus on textual analysis excludes butch lesbians because, with few exceptions, mainstream portrayals of lesbians are feminine (Urquhart 2014). Indeed, there is a long history of pop culture ignoring butch lesbians (Ciasullo 2001). The exclusion of butch lesbians serves a biopedagogical function. Biopedagogy operates through cultural texts and discourse to produce and disseminate knowledge about how we should inhabit our bodies and behave, in accordance with the expectation we conform to and embody normativity (Chandler and Rice 2013; Foucault 1978). The absence of butch lesbians in pop culture, in particular, butch mothers, suggests lesbians should not inhabit butch bodies or behave butch, and that mothers do not reside butch bodies. The absence of butch mothers in media also causes a division between lesbians and “ideas of family, long-term relationships, child raising, and stable romance” (Pullen 2013, 1). Public attitudes impact public policies that legislate and discriminate against lesbian mothers (for a review of policies in Canada,