Haecceity of Becoming-Mother

A Diffractive Analysis of Babywearing Through a Global Pandemic

Bibliographic Data

ID2409201
AuthorsLouise Platt (0000-0001-9063-1110, Manchester Metropolitan University, corresponding author)
Year2023
Volume23
Issue4
Pages374-384
Publication date2023-08-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueCulture Studies ↔ Critical Methodologies (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1532-7086 • E-ISSN: 1552-356X
PublisherSAGE Publishing (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1177/15327086231169060
OpenAlexW4367854098
LanguageEN
Citations received2
References cited57

This paper problematizes notions of good/bad mothering by putting to work Deleuze and Guattari's haecceity. Focusing on babywearing, it presents an autoethnography of my experiences of becoming-mother during the Covid-19 pandemic. Using diffractive analysis, I analyze the entanglement of my experiences of babywearing, research diaries, images/selfies, the regulations introduced during the pandemic, and the 'global cultural script' of being a good mother. It works toward a position of (k)not knowing, being open to the unknown. Under the lens of haecceity, becoming-mother is 'thisness'-a middle, knotting, and unknotting, ever emergent

Aesthetics · Autoethnography · Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19 · Epistemology · Pandemic · Sociology · Children's Rights and Participation · Gender Studies · Gender, Feminism, and Media · Philosophy · Posthumanist Ethics and Activism