The linguistic, visual and multimodal representation of two-Mum and two-Dad families in children’s picturebooks

Abstract

Gender representation in children’s literature is an established area of research, and the representation of sexuality increasingly so. Less established, however, is work on sexuality in picturebooks, in particular (a) the representation of gay co-parents, and (b) work with a linguistic or multimodal focus. Using a dataset of 25 picturebooks featuring two-Mum and two-Dad families, and focusing on ‘explicitness’ about their sexuality, we explore differences in the representation of the gay Mums and gay Dads. We look first at the book titles and co-parents’ names, using van Leeuwen’s Social Actor Network (1996, 2008) categories of Nomination and Categorization. Secondly, we look at the indexing of gay sexuality through the linguistic, visual and multimodal representation of physical contact, starting with van Leeuwen’s (2008) Visual Social Actor Network. Although the co-parents’ sexuality was shown in positive and diverse ways, Mums were more frequently constructed than Dads as co-parents, and Dads more frequently constructed than Mums as partners. Gender appears to interact with sexuality to produce these gendered representations of the gay Mums and Dads.

Parental Naming Practices in Same‐Sex Adoptive Families

“…Consistent with previous literature (Bergen et al ; Sunderland & McGlashan, ), parallel naming was prominent among parents in the sample and provided a way for families to construct their family identity as one in which both parents are on equal footing. The negotiations and trade‐offs that parents describe call to mind research on how same‐sex female couples divide child care, housework, and paid work such that partners may specialize in different areas of labor, yet arrangements are regarded as equitable and satisfactory (Downing & Goldberg, ).…”

Looking at picturebook covers multimodally: the case of two-Mum and two-Dad picturebooks

“…Although all the adults are framed only above the shoulders/neck, projecting downwards, the viewer can 'see' that the two women could be hugging each other, and that both arms of one of the men may be round the other (or, at least, that their proximity is such that there is no space between them). Projected, we can thus see both cover images as exemplifying the (gay) 'family embrace' also identified in several visuals inside other books (Sunderland and McGlashan, 2012). This is subtly enhanced by the curve of the titles which 'overarch' these depicted families.…”

“…To look first, briefly and linguistically (only), at the two-Mum and two-Dad book titles: in Sunderland and McGlashan (2012), we proposed six 'levels of explicitness' , including 'Implicit' (as we read this), in terms of linguistic representation of the sexual identity of the same-sex parents. 'High' explicitness, we argued, was achieved not only topically or lexically but through particular linguistic (syntactic) patterning: use of a declarative main clause (vis à vis phrase or subordinate clause) in combination with the social actor category of V i s u a l C o m m u n i c a t i o n 1 2 ( 4 ) categorization (vis à vis 'nomination'; Van Leeuwen, 1996 We are thus told about their social role as parents, which would not be the case if they were simply nominated (e.g.…”

“…As shown above, we included the (clausal) Mom and Mum are getting Married! in the 'Most explicit' group as regards sexual identity, the clause being unmodalized and declarative (Sunderland and McGlashan, 2012). In the Social Action network (Van Leeuwen, 1995, marry represents Material Action.…”

The many faces of diabetes: A critical multimodal analysis of diabetes pages on Facebook

“…Rather, they are presented in a transactive process of meeting each other's gaze and smiling, denoting a strong social connection between them. This social affiliation is further encoded by the participants' close proximity and physical connection to one another (Sunderland and McGlashan, 2012), as well as by the symmetrical positioning of the women's branded collection buckets.…”