Placing the Sexual back into Motherhood - join Jennifer Anyan for a lecture exploring the troubling Madonna-Whore dichotomy and uncovering the ways in which mothers are reclaiming pleasure
CLASS DESCRIPTION
This lecture focuses on exploring the often uncomfortable duality of two aspects of identity and experience: Sexuality & Motherhood. The sexual agency of Mothers is still very much a taboo, across cultures. The lecture gives contemporary and historic context to this and then shares research that provides insight into the experience of mothers in finding and navigating their sexual agency.
The Madonna-Whore dichotomy denotes polarised perceptions of women as either good chaste and pure Madonnas, or as bad promiscuous and seductive whores (Tanzer, 1985; Tavris & Wade, 1984 in Kahalon, et al. 2019). This dichotomy can be traced back to ancient civilizations and has been attributed to ideas around psychoanalysis, socio-economics and ultimately patriarchal control of society and the women in it. The idea might sound outdated, but is it? The impact is ever present; Friedman, Weinberg, and Pines (1998) found that the more sexual a woman was described, the less she was perceived as a good mother (i.e., indicating that sexuality and motherhood are viewed as mutually exclusive). Research published as recently as 2019 identifies that societal beliefs around the Madonna-Whore dichotomy are still prevalent and create maternal shame around sexuality (Kahalon et al. 2019). Despite divorce rates at an all-time high a figure still often demonised is the single mother, often characterised as a threat to civilised society, Jacqueline Rose explains it is a common assumption that a single mother is a woman who puts her sexual life ahead of her social responsibility. She therefore has only herself, or rather her voracious sexual appetites to blame. Manipulative or sexual the single mother exhibits either too much control over her sexual life or not enough (2018). There are no such narratives around the single father despite common sexual scripts depicting men as more promiscuous.
Jennifer Anyans research uncovers the ways in which mothers are reclaiming pleasure, drawing insights from interviews with a diverse range of mothers on their relationship with s3x, their sexual agency, and the paths they have taken in reclaiming their bodies for pleasure.
ABOUT OUR LECTURER
Jennifer Anyan (she/her) is an interdisciplinary artist and researcher. Anyans artwork is preoccupied with how we construct identity in relation to the body and dress, and how this affects our experience and perception of the world. Anyans practice includes sound, text, photographic image, painting, drawing, objects and installation. Her work usually begins with a period of ethnographic research; the boundary between the research and the outcomes can be blurred.
@theothermotherproject began in 2021 with a desire to deconstruct and challenge the mythology of Motherhood, particularly that of a good mother. The starting point was Anyans own experience of reactions to her choosing single motherhood but has extended far beyond the personal to try to examine how we might consider a maternal spectrum as well as make space for hearing from all who identify as maternal but might deviate from social norms of the mother role or figure.
Jennifer is Associate Professor of the Art of Fashion and Director of the School of Arts, Media and Creative Industries Management at Arts University Bournemouth.
INSTAGRAM: @othermotherproject @jenniferanyan
WEBSITE: www.jenniferanyan.com
SPRING TERM 2025
Monday 20th January
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Beauty Pageants and National Identity
Monday 27th January
Verity Babbs (she/her)
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Monday 3rd February
Vex Ashley (she/her)
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Monday 10th February
Luisa-Maria MacCormack (she/her)
Holy Hags: Sinners and Sheela Na Gigs - RECORDING ONLY
Monday 17th February
Dr. Kimberley Baltzer-Jaray (she/they)
Women Who Kill: Gender Bias And Murder
Monday 24th February
Alekszandra Rokvity (she/her)
Endometriosis: A Feminist Issue
Monday 3rd March
TBC
Monday 10th March
Jennifer Anyan (she/her)
The Madonna Whore Dichotomy: Motherhood And Sexual Agency
Monday 17th March
Alyssa Velazquez (she/her)
Spawn: The Fantasy Of Women's Right To Choose
Monday 24th March
Leanne Yau (she/they)
Radical Connection Through Relationship Anarchy
Monday 31st March
Dr. Noam Yadin Evron (she/her)
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Monday 7th April
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Monday 14th April
Anna Souter (she/her)
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Monday 21st April
Luisa-Maria MacCormack (she/her)
Feminism And The Ice Age - RECORDING ONLY
Monday 28th April
Elora Shehabuddin (she/her)
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RECORDING
A recording of the lecture will be sent out by The Feminist Lecture Program after the event finishes, within 2 hours of the end of the class. This email will also contain any resources/reading list the lecturer shares.
Please add [email protected] to your email contacts to ensure you receive the recording as expected.
Please note that the recording will expire 7 days after sending.
PAY WHAT YOU CAN
Everyone is welcome to join this Pay-What-You-Can class. We suggest a donation of 20, however, we understand that may not be possible for everybody. Please be honest and pay what you can afford so that we can continue to offer our sessions on a donation basis.
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We're really looking forward to you joining us x
