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 The idea might sound outdated, but is it?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 Anyan’s 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. Anyan’s 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. Anyan’s 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 Anyan’s 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

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This is a recording of a live session hosted by The Feminist Lecture Program in February 2025. The reading list for the class can be found alongside this rental.

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