The Maternal Identity Construction

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Chapter 6

Do New Images Mean New Mothers?

The previous chapter has dwelled on participants’ motivations and perspectives to discuss their self-presentation. The participants’ curation of content has contextual meanings on their motherhood and maternal identities, albeit relatively new. The participants’ effort in constructing their relatively new mother impressions is also rather impressive. Nevertheless, in the journey of soliciting the participants’ perspectives of their online maternal images, I find there is more to tell behind their manifestations.

Relevant themes emerge to implicate the social expectations of motherhood in this system. Unveiling the pressure and influence inflicted among participants is the premise of this chapter. Scholars found that motherhood is “increasingly subjected to surveillance” (Grant, Mannay & Marzella, 2018, p.431). Therefore, this section’s analysis will cover the overarching severe surveillance and social scrutiny among mothers nowadays.

6.1 The Maternal Identity Construction

Büyükkuşoğlu (2017) noted that “the motherhood identity gets ahead of any other possible identities of women after women have given birth” (p.53). In other words, the construction of maternal identity is closely associated with children. McMahon (1995) defined that children are “the social objects of great cultural worth,” which transmit the symbolic power of altering women’s identities (as cited in Gueta, Peled & Sander-Almoznino, 2016, p.2). Apart from the participants’ already established identities discussed in the previous chapter, their self-presentation still casts some traditional

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beliefs upon maternal identity. Cara regarded herself as a modern woman, reasserting her identity to me:

“I share the things related to my children, but I also share many things about myself, such as fashion, lifestyle, and other things I like. I think the image of myself presented is as a modern mother.”

As one could see, Cara’s self-identity shifted during the interview, from “woman”

to “mother” in the above excerpt. Cara’s followers have influenced her self-presentation on Instagram to some extent. The resolute tone of mainly sharing about herself has modified into a slightly gentle idea under her followers’ scrutiny. Serving as a force to spur her maternal identity, her followers have fortified the expectations of “good mother ideology” in this system. Without noticing the compliance of social expectations, Cara’s motherhood consciousness is a concrete example of maternal identity construction.

Cara’s modulated identity had me rethink patriarchal motherhood: Is a woman doomed to lose her self-identity when children signify in ideal motherhood? Cara’s case shows that the mothers themselves should be dismissed since their children serve as a more significant value for creating their self-presentation. In a similar vein, the other participants are stuck, muddling about trying to attain the ideal maternal role. The contents related to the mother-children relationship frequently appear on the participants’ Instagram profiles, which prompt their maternal identities ideally.

The images of a “good mother” appear to be the participants’ consensus. The mother influencers have poured enormous effort into constructing an ideal maternal identity by signifying their care and love for children. As cited in Currie’s study, women shared related features as being “consistent with ‘good’ or traditional mothering” (2004, p.225) - that is, mothers in this system aspire to attain their good mother certification.

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The criteria of being a “good mother” include “loving, good listener, in control, gives advice, patient, spends time with a child, supportive, role model, just and fair, responsible, organized, self-sacrificing, involved in child’s life, and knowledgeable about parenting” (as cited in Liss, Schiffrin & Rizzo, 2013, p.9). The above definition has sublimed motherhood by chaining it to the presence of children permanently.

The participants have demonstrated how they have attained their aspiration of being a good mother with their highly-commercialized career. Having been introduced in Chapter 4, Cathy likes to share helpful tips about nurturing. She identifies herself as an expert related to mothering life on Instagram. As someone who could provide professional advice with her followers, Cathy was willing to share more about her baby:

“Because I’m a nurse, people will seek nurturing or nursing information from me, especially from the photos of me nurturing my baby. I’m happy that I can help them. You know, doctors in the hospital are busy, so the mothers prefer to ask me.

I can provide instant and helpful information for them.”

According to Cathy, becoming a mother influencer means helping mothers in this society. She could relate to her followers’ worries and understand the mothers’ concern about not obtaining instant assistance from the professionals.

Followers’ inquiries explain the mothers’ pursuit of becoming a “good mother.”

Cathy’s followers have honored her with the title of professional influencer, which prompted her mother-children content. Namely, the followers’ engagement in seeking professional information has incarnated Cathy as a role model for motherhood and resulted in the structure of ubiquitous patriarchal mother beliefs. In a similar case, Katie also revealed that she needed to be responsible for providing accurate information.

“Since I am a mother influencer, I need to be more aware of what I post online.

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to be extra careful about what I shared and provide a useful and real experience with my followers. I feel responsible for them.”

Katie has asserted her identity as an influencer, which makes her more careful about what she shares with her followers online. When she shares infant products, she attempts to provide real feelings and helpful instructions about using them. The motivations behind Cathy’ and Katie’s sharing deserve more exploration of the social context. To achieve this, I shall look into the internalizations of the mother belief among the participants. Two participants shared their firm beliefs of being a mother in the patriarchal system:

“I think it is because I am the one who gives birth. It’s our nature. So, I think it is more appropriate for me to look after the baby compared to my husband.” (Cathy)

“Men just can’t take care of the kids. I believe that we, mothers, should take care of our children. It’s our nature.” (Emma)

According to the excerpts, Cathy and Emma agreed on being the primary caregiver in a family. Cathy and Emma were both ones who willingly left the workforce for child-rearing duties. Cathy and Emma internalized the specific motherhood concept to justify their presence as a mother and reinforced the “function” of being a mother in this system.

Mothers are a synonym for caregivers in a family.

It also has something to do with their motivation to be an influencer. As someone who frequently shares professional nurturing information with followers, Cathy sincerely believes that mothers are better at looking after children. Emma shares many pictures of the dishes she has cooked, the arrangements she has made in the house, and the errands she has ran during the day. She presents her homemaker life consistently with what she has revealed on her YouTube channel. The underlying meanings reside in the “selling of their motherhood.”

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Annie’s self-presentation interweaves with overwhelming amounts of her child’s manifestation. In Annie’s story, her husband even told her that the baby was her best accessory since she takes pictures mostly with her baby (please refer to Figure 21). The revealing of children on her profile is a significant maternal image for verifying her maternal identity. These mothers feel the need to maintain their maternal images as good mothers for their influencer career. Khanom (2010) referred to the traditional culture as a commodity. The participants’ commercialized images of being a good mother aim to attract more followers. Through the followers’ consumerism of ideal motherhood, their contents of mothering life have become a way to promote their prestige and increase earnings.

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In a nutshell, maternal identity construction is more straightforward than before, specifically through social media. More than just tangling the mothers themselves with the good mother ideology, the participants’ commercialization of maternal images is also the byproduct of their maternal identity construction aspiration.