Studying stepfamilies, surfacing secrets: A reflection on the private motivations behind efforts to humanize family complexity

Abstract

Feminist family scholars have long called for greater transparency of the partial perspectives embedded within family science. In this paper, I employ feminist reflexive autoethnography to unpack the private motivations that guide my research on family complexity. Using critical storytelling, I trace the personal developments that led to a research program on structurally complex familiesfamilies shaped and reshaped by divorce, separations, repartnerships, and remarriages. I explore my commitments to naming the invisible, embracing the messy, and ultimately, humanizing the complicated and meaningful emotions and relationships in families navigating structural changes. I draw upon personal, embodied experiences to theorize about issues and phenomena that have yet to be named in the (step)family scholarship. Finally, I invite others to heed the calls of feminist scholars whose work invites us to consider how private experiences can be leveraged to generate new insights into the complexities of family and social life.

Cherished families, unspoken truths: Navigating hidden and challenging family experiences while growing up with LGBTQ parents

“…Left ignored, difficult topics further disadvantage historically marginalized families through invisibility and silence. Much can be learned from the perspectives of family members who have lived with stigma and challenges and found productive ways to thrive (Allen, 2023; Goldberg, 2023b; Sanner, 2023). Taking an integrative theoretical approach in which we examined hidden family topics in LGBTQ families by addressing stigma management and disclosure, minority family stresses, and queer resistance through an overarching life course perspective, we found evidence that these families are indeed complex, and the adults reared in such families were well aware of the array of difficulties that their families faced.…”