The Wild Side of Maternal Regret
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 19225271 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Olivia Landry (0000-0002-3779-6925, Virginia Commonwealth University, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2026 |
| Volume | 27 |
| Issue | 1 |
| Pages | 48-59 |
| Publication date | 2026-01-02 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Studies in Gender and Sexuality (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1524-0657 • E-ISSN: 1940-9206 |
| Publisher | Taylor & Francis (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1080/15240657.2026.2647558 |
| OpenAlex | W7164944442 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 12 |
More than a decade after Orna Donath (2015) confronted the public with the reality of maternal regret, there is still widespread hostility toward the topic and, in the U.S. context, a dearth of discussion. This essay reflects on Donath’s concept of “regretting motherhood” alongside older and newer theories of regret from Janet Landman (1993), Elizabeth Spelman (1997), and Sara Ahmed (2004/2015), to Brian Price (2017) and Andrea Long Chu (2024). In dialogue with these thinkers, regret emerges as a feeling that is both reflexive and transformative. Regret unmakes and remakes the self. But what does the transformation of maternal regret specifically entail? Rachel Yoder’s 2021 novel Nightbitch and its 2024 film adaption, directed by Marielle Heller, present an unexpected tale of maternal regret that turns on wildness, specifically the mother’s transformation into a dog. Taking this example and engaging finally with Jack Halberstam’s (2020) theory of wildness as a practice of resistance and an upheaval of the order of things, the essay develops an approach to regret that insists on its wild side
Feeling · Odds · Reflexivity · Regret · Wildness · Diverse academic research themes · Gender, Feminism, and Media · Posthumanist Ethics and Activism
| Citation velocity | historical |
|---|---|
| Highly cited | No |