A Tale of Two Mommies: (Re)Storying Family of Origin Narratives

Abstract

This study examined co-mother family of origin stories. Origin stories, representing the formation of a family, are culturally understood within a master narrative of heterosexual love and biological childbearing. Beginnings of co-mother families rupture this dominant, gendered, boy-meets-girl script. Investigating whether or not co-mother stories reify the normative master narrative or if instead their narrations resist and/or possibly transform conventional understandings, analysis identified three co-mother origin story themes: Becoming a Family (1) as Normal, (2) as Negotiation, and (3) as Normalization. Themes differ in terms of depiction of co-mother family formation as congruent with current norms, as something that needs to be made to seem normal (i.e., in need of normalization), or as something between normal and normalization-to be negotiated internally within the couple. Study results are discussed within a broader framework of family coming-together stories.

Queering the kinship story: constructing connection through LGBTQ family narratives

“…The first section of discussion in this article examined the kinship narratives of people with LGBTQ parents who have always known their queer kinship stories. Many of these findings resonated with current LGBTQ kinship literature (Nordqvist and Smart, 2014b;Suter et al, 2016) which highlights the way that LGBTQ parents often construct alternative family stories, diverging from dominant heterosexual understandings of 'the family'. In these contexts, people with LGBTQ parents are often told their nonnormative stories of conception and understand their parents' 'processes' of coming out.…”

“…There is a growing body of literature in the social sciences on intimacy and kinship beyond the conventional family. Widely cited and important studies into ‘families of choice’ (Weston, 1991; Stacey, 1996; Weeks et al, 2001) have emphasised elective kinship ties over biological links. Paths to LGBTQ parenthood have been investigated, including decision-making around the use of known and anonymous donors (Almack, 2006; Dempsey, 2010; Nordqvist, 2014), the experience of using fertility clinics (Epstein, 2018) and constructing relatedness when children are conceived through donor gametes (Jones, 2005; Nordqvist, 2012).…”

Family Stories: Collections of Narratives Revealing Family Identity

“…Sharing stories also offers family members the opportunity to establish and perform their individual identities and to create their families’ collective identity. Suter et al. (“A Tale of Two Mommies”) assert that the stories families collect serve as “a blueprint for family life” (1).…”

Gold star motherhood: spectacle, emotion, and identity construction

“…Roles are constructed and reconstructed, dictated by institutional norms. Family is influenced by structures of race (Collins, 2002;Orbe, 1999;Soliz, Thorson, and Rittenour, 2009), class (Hill, 2012;Lareau, 2003;Pugh, 2009), gender (Hochschilds, 1989, and sexuality (Kimport, 2014;Suter et al 2016), to name a few.…”