“We Are the Beaker Mums”

Abstract

This article sustains that children’s literature has the potential to legitimise and subvert dominant motherhood ideologies. Drawing on feminist motherhood theory in the fields of gender studies and children’s literature, this article critically analyses the influence of New Momism in Jacqueline Wilson’s Tracy Beaker series (1991–2019), contributing to a body of research on these acclaimed books for children. New Momism is an ideological movement which romanticises motherhood and sets highly demanding, impossible-to-meet standards of motherhood (Douglas and Adams 4). New Momist ideology resulted in a series of mother stereotypes advanced by the media, such as the “celebrity mum”, the “welfare mother” and the “supermum”. Mother characters in the Tracy Beaker novels are analysed against these stereotypes to ascertain to what extent their existence is supported or disavowed. This article is divided into two sections that coincide with the two sequences of the series. The first focuses on the two main mother characters: Carly, Tracy’s biological mother, and Cam, Tracy’s foster mother. The second part focuses on the character of Tracy as a mother and how her socio-economic background affects her experience of mothering. The presence of mother stereotypes such as the celebrity mum and the welfare mother demonstrate how New Momist ideas are embedded in the text. However, these patriarchal ideas of motherhood are also undermined in the novels, most notably through the challenge of mother stereotypes, the dismissal of the mother ideal and the portrayal of diverse motherhood experiences. Finally, an evolution in the treatment of motherhood throughout the years can be observed in the series, with the most recent novels presenting a more progressive perspective on working-class motherhood and female sexuality.