Tag Archives: Aster Woods

Making Space for More Than One Mother

By Aster Woods Shelley Park in “Queering Motherhood” discusses her personal experience with being both a birth-giving mother and an adoptive mother in an extended family. She considers her children’s own perspectives on the way in which she mothers them; her adopted daughter in particular is resistant to her claim of motherhood, screaming “You’re notContinue reading “Making Space for More Than One Mother”

Accepting Help

By Aster Woods Can you imagine a scenario that would finally push you over the edge? Or do you just keep telling yourself you can handle anything? For people who care for others, hitting rock bottom is often an abstract principle. You do whatever it takes to keep on going. Because what’s the alternative? Really?Continue reading “Accepting Help”

Let’s Talk About Monomaternalism

Explorations and Art by Aster Woods What is Monomaternalism? Monomaternalism, as defined by Shelley Park in her 2013 academic work ”Mothering Queerly, Queering Motherhood: Resisting Monomaternalism in Adoptive, Lesbian, Blended, and Polygamous Families” is essentially the pervasive notion that a person can have only one mother; it also privileges the bio-essentialist belief that only theContinue reading “Let’s Talk About Monomaternalism”