The dead and the abhorred: Mindhunter and the persistence of mother-blame

In her study of violent protagonists in American literature, Wilson-Scott argues that “mothers are frequently used as the principle traumatizing factor, demonized and depersonalized in order to reassert their violent offspring’s humanity” (p. 191). Further, Wilson-Scott states that her work “reveals the persistent assumption that mothers make monsters” (p. 193). Taking our tacit agreement with Wilson-Scott as a starting point, we argue along with her that mother-blame remains a central motif of mainstream cultural narratives about violent masculinity. The focus of this essay is on the strategies through which mother-blame is used to validate the authorial authenticity of the male serial killer and his ways of knowing and of being in the world. In this essay we offer the first season of the popular Netflix series Mindhunter (2017–) as a case study and ask how the representation of the serial killer’s insight and seemingly accurate understanding of his own pathology is linked to its antithesis, woman-hate, and often, the pathologizing of the mother.

Fat chat : an exploration of obesity discourses in Canadian media and their impacts on social work

This Major Research Paper conducted a critical discourse analysis of Canadian Press articles focused on obesity. This research sought to understand how the articles constructed obesity, what discourses were operating, and what power relations were at play. The three main discourses that shaped the articles were mother blame, the medical model, and economics. They became evident through photographs, language used, gendered power relations, medicalized understandings of health and solutions to obesity, and who was profiting or benefitting from these understandings and solutions. Social work practitioners and educators need to consider these discourses when conceptualizing obesity, and strive to contextualize individual experiences of fatness within broader structural and systemic power relations. Social workers also need to be cautious about reproducing oppressive anti-obesity practices, social work is a profession that has historically been an agent of social control and discipline.

Fat chat : an exploration of obesity discourses in Canadian media and their impacts on social work

This Major Research Paper conducted a critical discourse analysis of Canadian Press articles focused on obesity. This research sought to understand how the articles constructed obesity, what discourses were operating, and what power relations were at play. The three main discourses that shaped the articles were mother blame, the medical model, and economics. They became evident through photographs, language used, gendered power relations, medicalized understandings of health and solutions to obesity, and who was profiting or benefitting from these understandings and solutions. Social work practitioners and educators need to consider these discourses when conceptualizing obesity, and strive to contextualize individual experiences of fatness within broader structural and systemic power relations. Social workers also need to be cautious about reproducing oppressive anti-obesity practices, social work is a profession that has historically been an agent of social control and discipline.

Examining the representations of social actors in FASD prevention campaigns

Through an exploration of public health campaigns targeting the prevention of FASD, I identified and challenged the concepts of mother blame and stigma found within the discursive practices of the medical system. Framed by feminist theory and critical discourse analysis (CDA), I used van Leeuwan’s approach to social actors to name and explore the representations of people depicted within the campaigns. The discussion focuses on how the current discourse on FASD informs the way that people are perceived and explores possible avenues to challenge and shift the way that substance use is discussed in relation to women and pregnancy.

Examining the representations of social actors in FASD prevention campaigns

Through an exploration of public health campaigns targeting the prevention of FASD, I identified and challenged the concepts of mother blame and stigma found within the discursive practices of the medical system. Framed by feminist theory and critical discourse analysis (CDA), I used van Leeuwan’s approach to social actors to name and explore the representations of people depicted within the campaigns. The discussion focuses on how the current discourse on FASD informs the way that people are perceived and explores possible avenues to challenge and shift the way that substance use is discussed in relation to women and pregnancy.

Developing a Theoretical Framework to Discuss Mothers Experiencing Domestic Violence and Being Subject to Interventions: A Cross-National Perspective

The discourse about domestic violence has developed in patriarchal societies, and so we position our understanding of ‘mother’ within a patriarchal framework. We explore the ways in which ‘mothering’ and ‘mother blame’ have been constructed within that framework and how this becomes relevant in the context of domestic violence and child welfare social work. We review literature from Australia, Canada, England and Wales, and the United States of America that has focused on child welfare responses to mothers experiencing domestic violence and abuse. On the basis of that review, we argue that mothers are responsibilised for violence and abuse they do not perpetrate. We show that the way legislation operates in some jurisdictions facilitates hegemonic, patriarchal constructions. We call for a review of current child welfare social work policy and practice in which domestic violence is present.

Mothering through and in Violence: Discourses of the ‘Good Mother’

Domestic and family violence research recognises mothering is impacted by and implicated in abusive relationships and increasingly attends to the negative impacts of domestic and family violence on children, whether or not they are direct targets of perpetrator abuse. Contemporary research also situates the undermining of the mother/child relationship as common in abusive relationships. Bringing together data from two projects – one investigating the experiences of women with disability, and one focused on women experiencing family violence from their adolescent children – we examine a further way in which mothering is impacted by family violence. While there were distinct challenges for each group of mothers, we argue that adaptable and damaging discourses of the ‘good mother’ impact mothers in situations of domestic and family violence. We argue that unchallenged accounts of ‘good’ mothers as fully responsible for their children animate persistent discourses of mother-blame. These discourses should be understood as a gendered driver of domestic and family violence.

The Removal of Children in Domestic Violence: Widening Service Provider Perspectives

A range of service providers support mothers and children who are experiencing domestic violence (DV). However, research tends to focus on the role of service providers in child protection services and DV services. This potentially excludes valuable insights from a wider range of nongovernment service providers on the systemic issues that mothers experiencing DV and child separation may experience. This research explored the perspectives of 16 different nongovernment service providers about working with women who have had their children removed while experiencing DV. The study used an intersectional feminist approach that highlighted intersecting gendered and racialized power relations in service responses functioning to reinforce multiple dimensions of disadvantage. The study found that mother blame was a pervasive issue both within and outside of child protection services. Service providers described the challenges of navigating a system that revictimizes women, with particular impacts for Aboriginal and culturally diverse mothers. The findings reinforced the importance of preventing mother blame, holding perpetrators of DV more accountable, and improving collaboration across services and for more flexible responses to women living with violence.