What Will They Call You? Rhetorically Listening to Lesbian Maternal Narratives

Abstract

This article examines maternal narratives by lesbian, nonbiological co-parents published in the last decade and explains problems of recognition, wherein claims of identity are challenged, for lesbian parents whose partners give birth. These women encounter a discursive gap since no default term exists for their familial role. Applying Burke's theory of identification and Ratcliffe's rhetorical listening model illuminates how legal and social problems of recognition disempower lesbian co-mothers. The author concludes that narratives written by lesbian co-parents function as socio-discursive ways of affirming motherhood outside heterosexist norms and signify one additional way scholars must continue to attend to meaningful silences.