'Sisters underneath their skins': Theorizing maternal performativity in legal discourses of white women's race-involved child custody disputes in the United States, 1991--2004.

摘要

This dissertation is an analysis of legal discourses produced in court decisions concerning white mothers involved in intimate relationships with black men while seeking custody of their white children between 1941 and 2004 in the United States. In querying the data I have gathered on the extant subject I ask whether the language used by courts to discuss such women diminishes their whiteness, framing them as socially black and therefore less worthy mothers and custodians of their white children. In this regard I ask whether they are subject to "coded black" motherhood: a motherhood that is tinged with the negative associations of black motherhood. I apply Judith Butler's concept of gender performativity as a framework for conducting a critical discourse analysis of this issue. After applying Butler's theory I consider whether it is possible to expand Butler's gender performativity theory to posit a theory of maternal performativity. The analysis set forth in this dissertation is offered as a prolegomenon to a theory of maternal performativity that helps to explain the role of race and gender in child custody cases where the mother's intimate relations are raised as an issue. I posit that a significant mechanism for forging this expanded understanding of Butler's gender performativity theory is a combination of both literal and figurative mechanisms of surveillance.