Public Mothering: How Celebrity Mediascapes Shape Public Understandings of Transnationally Adopted Families

Abstract

Transnational adoption is a unique site in which to explore changing ideas andattitudes about kinship, womanhood and motherhood in Canada. This paper combinesmedia analysis and ethnographic research with Canadian adoptive motherswho went to China to adopt children. It examines how ideas about transnationaladoption are shaped in the media and in our communities. The celebrity providesa privileged site for contesting and negotiating how transnational adoption isunderstood by the general public. The media representations of transnationallyadoptive motherhood are reflected back in the everyday interactions of adoptivemothers in their communities. Mothers who participate in transnational adoptionsare constructed as either ‘good’ or ‘bad,’ both through the media and in everydaysocial interaction. Mothers are either perceived as ‘saints’ who save children fromunfortunate circumstances or ‘villains’ who purchase children. This research pointsout how women will justify their decision to adopt by aligning their adoption storieswith the discourse of ‘good’ adoption or ‘saving’ children. Transnational adoption isimmersed in a complicated discourse of critique and praise creating a dichotomy ofreactions to these public families. Families with transnationally adopted childrenbecome public families because the children do not look like biological kin. Themedia and the communities keep watch on these families, particularly the mothersand judge their reproductive choices.