Special

Gender & Sexuality Studies / Interdisciplinary Studies

Margaret Mauk (College of Charleston)
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Paige Wallace (University of South Carolina - Sumter)
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The maternal figure is at the intersect of cultural anxieties such as immigration, healthcare, and climate change. Legal and political barriers along with public opinion have imposed patriarchal and sexist ideologies on the maternal figure. The patriarchal construct of maternal knowledge and instinct dehumanizes women by situating them as the authority in the private sphere while delegitimizing their political and individual rights in the public sphere This panel explores the construction and deconstruction of maternal knowledge and authority as it exists in popular culture texts including contemporary literature and media like television, political campaigns, advertising, celebrity culture, and social media.

This panel investigates the maternal figure as a critical site where cultural, political, and environmental anxieties converge. In a society marked by increased political polarization, marked healthcare inequities, and escalating climate emergencies, the maternal body and identity are increasingly politicized. These pressures are compounded by patriarchal ideologies that frame maternal knowledge as instinctual and apolitical—situating authority in the private sphere while stripping maternal voices of legitimacy in public discourse.

The maternal figure is both a symbol and a subject of control, resistance, and reinvention. This panel invites presentations from a range of fields like feminist theory, media studies, cultural studies, and political science to interrogate how maternal authority is constructed, contested, and commodified across various platforms from political campaigns that weaponize motherhood to social media influencers who monetize maternal labor.

We believe this critical conversation is especially relevant in relation to recent events such as but not limited to the appeal of Roe vs. Wade and the disproportionate burden of caregiving during the COVID-19 pandemic. These developments underscore the need to critically examine how maternal figures are mobilized in public discourse and how their authority is negotiated in both empowering and oppressive ways.

By analyzing representations in literature, television, advertising, celebrity culture, and digital media, this panel will explore how maternal knowledge is shaped by and responds to dominant narratives. It will also consider how these narratives reinforce or challenge systemic inequalities related to gender, race, class, and citizenship.

Ultimately, this panel aims to foster a deeper understanding of the maternal figure not as a static archetype, but as a dynamic and contested identity shaped by intersecting forces of power, culture, and resistance. Below you can find a list of potential topics:
• lawsuits challenging state abortion bans
• mommy vloggers and the state of sharenting
• new representations of motherhood in "rich-people shows" e.g. White Lotus and Big Little Lies
• growing cultural attention to the Mormon mother
• mothers as environmental advocates
• incarceration of migrant mothers
• the rise and fall of the "crunchy mom"
• motherhood and new uses of AI
• the role of the mother in contemporary crime fiction