Journal of the Motherhood Initiative for Research and Community Involvement (JMI - York University)
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1824 research outputs found
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Reburial of the Mother and the Horror of the Feminine in Southern Gothic Fiction
Full text linkThis article focuses on the portrayal of women, especially mothers, in the works of Southern gothic authors Anne Rice, Poppy Z. Brite, and Charlaine Harris. The works of Rice and Brite imagine the South as a white, male-coded space. Nonetheless, a few strong female characters in their works challenge the patriarchal order but end up paying with their lives. Rice’s The Vampire Chronicles presents strong nonwhite matriarchs and excavates matrilineal lineages only to rebury them in favour of white patriarchs and patriarchal heritages. In Brite’s Lost Souls, in contrast, independent young women who express their sexuality are deemed promiscuous and punished with unwanted pregnancies and death at childbirth. Charlaine Harris’s The Southern Vampire Mysteries has a female protagonist, Sookie. However, in this series, too, Adele, the matriarch, is killed early, and more importance is given to the patrilineal heritage. Another young mother, Crystal, meets the same fate as the women in Brite’s novel. All the mothers who die in the works of these authors allow for the mixing of races. This article argues that although these authors give strong women a voice and place, they do so only to take the agency away from the women in favour of a patriarchal order. These works display matrophobia, a fear of becoming one’s mother and of motherhood. Moreover, matrophobia is used to instill fear of miscegenation, control women’s reproductive function, and preserve gender and racial divisions. 
Transnational Mothering of Children with Disabilities: The Experience of Nicaraguan Caregivers and Professionals
Full text linkChildren with disabilities in developing countries live in complex situations; they face difficulties accessing basic resources, and their fundamental rights are rarely considered. Our study aims to describe the social, educational, and healthcare context of children with disabilities in Nicaragua and to determine factors conditioning their wellbeing by exploring families’ and professionals’ perspectives. Twenty-two representatives from the health, educational, and community service sectors and twenty caregivers of children with disabilities living in the Las Segovias region of Nicaragua participated in semistructured interviews. These comprised open-ended questions about the services provided for children with disabilities and particular experiences related to their care. The interviews were audio-recorded and transcribed. Two independent coders conducted framework analysis on the transcripts. Representatives from the service sectors identified challenges facing caregivers of children with disabilities, highlighting how economic and social vulnerability in rural areas contributes to their specific needs. Public services do not cover the multidimensional needs of these children. Mothers provide economic support and rely on informal networks of care. However, mothers’ situations of migration and poverty, combined with service deficits in rural environments, aggravated the social exclusion experienced by these families. Caregivers were women who had few supports for caring for children with complex conditions throughout their lifespan
After Weaning
Full text linkAfter Weaning is a series of photographic works created by hand-expressing human milk directly onto silver gelatin photographic paper. Originally devised as a strategy to prevent mastitis after my child stopped breastfeeding, this act evolved into an artistic ritual—an exploration of lactation as embodied labour and an honouring of this vital carework
The Moms Are Alright: Subverting Motherhood in Crisis in Night Raiders, Everything Everywhere All at Once, and All Dirt Roads Taste of Salt
Full text linkPresent yet often relegated to the margins of the image or narrative (or both), the cinematic mother is historically a site of crisis (Fischer 30). In North American cinema, she is also historically a heterosexual white woman. The films Night Raiders (Danis Goulet, 2021), Everything Everywhere All at Once (Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert, 2022), and All Dirt Roads Taste of Salt (Raven Jackson, 2023) transform the cinematic mother figure from an absent presence to a central and visible element of their stories. They also destabilize the white supremacy of the cinematic mother figure by presenting matrifocal narratives of a Cree mother (Niska, Night Raiders), a Chinese American immigrant mother (Evelyn, Everything Everywhere All at Once), and African American mothers (Mack and Evelyn, All Dirt Roads Taste of Salt). These films subvert the cinematic tradition of representing motherhood in crisis by locating the crisis outside of motherhood (Night Raiders), presenting crisis as something experienced by a mother rather than solely her children (Everything Everywhere All at Once), and rejecting crisis in favour of a meditative, poetic approach to motherhood (All Dirt Roads Taste of Salt). By employing a matrifocal approach to narrative, cinematography, and editing, each film pushes against monstrous mother tropes that are pervasive in North American cinema. Finally, by presenting positive images of mothers that deviate from normative motherhood, both in identity and in practices, the films also render visible the absurdity and impossibility of the institution of motherhood as defined by Adrienne Rich
Poetic Inquiry: International Doctoral Students’ Roles as Digital Learners, Educators, and Mothers during Lockdown
Full text linkThe COVID-19 pandemic, a global crisis of unprecedented scale, caused widespread upheaval and significantly affected international doctoral student mothers (IDSMs) worldwide. Due to visa and travel restrictions, some IDSMs began their doctoral work in their home countries in different time zones with limited connectivity and resource access. Others in the United States used digital devices to coparent their children and support significant others. In this article, we describe how we used an interpretive approach, notably poetic inquiry, to delve into the experiences of six IDSMs from Egypt, Pakistan, Ukraine, Bangladesh, Palestine, and Botswana. Our found poems, a product of this unique methodology, provide educators with a nuanced and enlarged understanding of how technology eased and challenged IDSMs’ roles as mothers, digital learners, and educators during an extended lockdown. Higher education institutions (HEI) committed to creating inclusive spaces can use the found poems to ignite interdisciplinary, cross-sectoral dialogue about how to meet the needs of this underrepresented and underserved population. This article will also aid qualitative researchers interested in exploring poetic approaches for data analysis and representation. 
All Love Begins and Ends Here
Full text linkI am an artist currently studying textiles at the Royal College of Art. My practice focusses on soft sculpture to tell an alternative motherhood story. This article offers meaningful glimpses into motherhood through original artworks from a recent college exhibition with the same title and supported by our student union, for which I was awarded to curate in March 2025. The open call asked artists to respond to a quote from Hettie Judah in her 2024 book Acts of Creation: “Long taboo, the realities of motherhood are now the subject of urgent discussion.” I believe I have never added as much value as being a mother. However, I have also never felt as lonely and overlooked. Through my curatorial choices, I wanted to highlight this paradox of motherhood and show that I am not alone.
While the virgin and child is one of the great subjects of European art, there is more to be expressed about motherhood as a lived complex experience, including themes of identity change, blurred boundaries, sacrificing the self, and retaining strength, patience, and grounding while fighting solitude, depression, worthlessness, and fear, as well as being often flooded with pride and joy. The show successfully explored the gifts and struggles of mothers —and of not becoming a mother—through fourteen works by twelve artists from programs across the college. To the collective world, mothers are only mothers but to so many individually they make the world. It was a pleasure to see the audience immersed in the artists’ stories. Their interest prompted me to write this article to sustain discussion around motherhood. 
Diary of Losing a Breast and Reflections on Mothering as an Arab
Full text linkDrawing on scholarship in feminist studies, sociolinguistics, and cultural studies, this article-diary argues that motherhood—particularly as experienced by an Arab woman navigating personal loss, specifically the loss of a breast to cancer, and societal expectations—is not a static role but a dynamic practice shaped by cultural, linguistic, and feminist frameworks. This article explores how motherhood is a site of resistance and transformation against patriarchal norms by weaving together personal narratives and theoretical insights. It critically examines the limitations of language—specifically in Arabic, where the word “mother” is predominantly used as a noun—and advocates for reimagining and rethinking maternal roles as active and evolving practices. Through reflections on breast cancer, and the care exchanged between a mother and her mothering daughter, this piece positions the maternal as inherently political, thereby challenging conventional narratives of femininity and identity. Ultimately, it asserts that caregiving, loss, and resilience are acts of agency that redefine the self and resist the broader constraints imposed by patriarchal structures