Rhetorics of Unwed Motherhood and Shame

Abstract

ABSTRACTIdentifying recent historical instances of rhetorical shaming, such as the verbal and nonverbal shaming practices related to unwed motherhood during the mid-twentieth century, contributes to a diachronic study of mothering rhetorics that can queer more recent histories of motherhood. This article analyzes narratives of once-unwed mothers who cite shame as a primary factor that shaped their “decision” to surrender a child for adoption. As rhetorics of reproduction, these stories account for an unspoken raced and classed purity practice of hiding unwed pregnancy and erasing an illicit mother identity due to the threat of communicable shame. As reproducing rhetorics of shame, the narratives demarcate the pure from the impure and serve as a mechanism that figures unwed pregnancy as proof of what I call ontological failure.