Mothering Queerly, Queering Motherhood by Shelley M. Park

Bridging feminist studies of motherhood and queer theory, Shelley M. Park articulates a philosophy of queer kinship that need not be rooted in lesbian or gay identity. Drawing on feminist philosophy and queer, psychoanalytic, poststructuralist and postcolonial theory, she critiques what she calls monomaternalism: the insistence that every child should have one and only one real mother. Park shows how families created through open adoption, same-sex parenting, divorce and plural marriage can be sites of resistance. Combining her experiences as an adoptive and a biological mother with readings of cultural texts about multi-mother families, she proposes postmodern families as queer coalitions held together by affection and critical reflection.