ABSTRACT

This critical content analysis examines how the changes in the visual narrative of the most current edition of Heather Has Two Mommies (Newman, 2015) affect the overall visual meaning of the story from the first edition of the book. The tools for analysis include ambience, and pathos and affect, used within Queer Theory. The chapter also identifies icons and symbols that have been added to, removed from, or replaced in the visual narrative published in 2015, and how those changes have intensified the heteronormative reality present in earlier editions of Heather Has Two Mommies. The chapter includes a discussion about the origins of Heather, and its historical significance as a ground-breaking story intended to positively portray the family structures of a child with same-sex parents, that was first published in 1989, with a fourth edition appearing in 2015. The analysis draws attention to the de-queering of the narrative through the removal of political and queer imagery as well as the feminization of the characters’ physical appearance and accessories. This analysis raises questions about making stories “more appealing,” and the impact on the overall meaning of the story that compromises the integrity of the story through the perpetuation of heteronormativity, despite featuring a family with same-sex parents.