“I’m not a saint”: divine motherhood at the intersection of single adoption and disability

Abstract

ABSTRACT This article examines some of the social norms, expectations and prejudices that surround the single adoption of disabled children in the UK. Drawing on interviews with a UK-based single adoptive parent, Lynne, it undertakes an intersectional exploration of the quasi-religious ‘saintly adopter’ position that is frequently ascribed to her. This analysis is realized through a sociocultural linguistic approach (Bucholtz & Hall, 2005), which offers tools for examining how individuals position themselves in relation to local and global identities, experiences and expectations. The article shows that the apparent praise of adopters as saintly figures can have an illegitimating force, since it is rooted in presumptions around certain children being ‘helpless’, ‘damaged’, and in need of rescue by ‘perfect’ parents. The pressures surrounding this position are likely to be felt even more strongly by parents and children who are marginalized in multiple ways, such as Lynne, who is both a single and adoptive parent, and her children, who are both adopted and disabled. Together, intersecting forms of prejudice around adoption, single parenthood and disability can make it difficult for single adopters, and adopters of disabled children, to be seen as valued and legitimate parents in a wider social context.