Doin’ it for My Kids: Performing Ideal White Motherhood in the Age of Trump

• In Event: 1483 - Open Refereed Roundtable Session
  In Refereed Roundtable 100min: Table 15. Racial Identity and Individualism Among Working Class Whites in the Trump Era

Abstract

As a group, white, straight, upper class, Christian women, historically and currently, continue to make choices that reinforce and expand their own privileges. This maintenance of privilege is often unacknowledged because these actions occur under the guise of motherhood. The cover of motherhood serves as a universal “pass” allowing women to increase their own privilege and that of their family members. This is often expressed in sacrificial language as “doin’ it for my kids”. White, straight, upper class, Christian mothers are able to inhabit and project “ideal motherhood”. Ideal motherhood creates an effective maintenance tool by harnessing the matrix of domination and producing norms and tasks that effectively consolidate power and status. The privilege project of the ideal mother uses multiple privileged identities—class, gender, race, religion—to attract participants who are seeking (perhaps unconsciously) to consolidate their status and privilege.

Authors

• Emily Tillotson, Walla Walla University

• Cheris Brewer Current, Walla Walla University