ABSTRACT
Rarely are mothers’ lives and activities invisible, as much as we think of mothering as a private act performed by a mother inside a domestic space. Instead, mothers’ social worlds are permeated with mechanisms by which mothers and mothering are governed, that is, defined, managed, and regulated. State and institutional actors and cultural practices invoke ideological understandings of mothering – the ideology of intensive mothering – in interactions with mothers. The outcome is that all mothers, but most particularly already marginalized mothers, are held accountable to unrealistic mothering expectations rooted in existing oppressive structures. Formal governance is performed through the state or state-affiliated agencies, like child services, where officials use intensive mothering to assess mothers and their daily lives, punitively judging, restricting, and sometimes imprisoning those perceived as not adequately adhering to institutionalized expertise. Concurrently, intensive mothering messages permeate the media and social interactions, creating an ideological surveillance culture within which mothers are watched, evaluated, found wanting, and sometimes publicly shamed. Ultimately, mothers come to surveil themselves, seeking safety and/or respect as docile mothering bodies. Meanwhile, resistance to the governance of mothers exists, including challenges to institutional expertise, the hegemony of intensive mothering, and surveillance culture itself.
