In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:

FIVE Withinfeminist theorizing, the conceptoffamilial ideology has playedan importantrole.At a basiclevel , it refersto the ways in which the dominantform offamily-the nuclearheterosexualunit- is renderednatural, inevitable, and ideal. ShelleyA.M. Gavigan , in thisessay , usesthe concepttothink about legalbattlesbetween lesbian mothers. Her interestis in exploringhowfamilial ideology playsout in theseconfli cts: Who resortstofurthering it and why? Docustodyand access fights betweenlesbian co-parentsentrenchor undermine dominant notionsof family? Ultimately,Gaviganproblematizestraditional (within lesbianandgay theorizing)understandingsof judgesas homophobicand arguesthatfamilial ideology informsand shapesthepositionsof both mothers, long beforethey cometocourt. A Parent(ly) Knot: Can Heather Have Two Mommies?' Shelley A . M. Gavigan Introduction There is a children's book entitled HeatherHas TwoMommies. It is the story of a little girl whose parents are a lesbian couple-Kate and Jane; Kate is a doctor , and Jane is a carpenter. Kate and Jane are blissfully happy, but they want to have a child in their lives. Following a joint decision, Jane becomes pregnant through alternative insemination , and, soon thereafter , Heather is born. Heather regards each woman as her mother: they are called "Mama Kate " and "Mama Jane." However, when she goes to nursery school, she discovers, apparently for the first time, that she is different from other children-she doesn 't have a daddy. The story proceeds to illustrate , through the first-person accounts of the other children in Heather's nursery school , that there are many kinds of families . Reassured, Heather greets her two mommies at the end of the day, and she, Kate, and Jane leave together, presum I wish to thank Jill Gran t for her superb technical assistance and Karen Pearlston for her equally superb research assistance . I also acknowledge with thanks the comm ents of Didi Herman , Susan Boyd, and Aviva Goldberg on an earlier draft. Karen Andrews , Judy Fudge , Brenda Cossman , and Dorothy Chunn endured many hours of discussions, and I thank them for their insight and stamina. Judy Deverell inspired me, and Amy Deverell decided for herself. 102 Copyrighted Material A PARENT(LY) KNOT: CAN HEATHER HAVE TWO MOMMIES? 103 ably to live happily ever after with the ir ginger cat and black Labrador dog. For those of us who are students of family law and perhaps of family life, Heather 's story raises interesting questions, including interesting legal ones . While the story undoubtedly provides a measure of comfort to lesbian parents and a new generation of children being raised in lesbian households, the extent to which its content is regarded by many as controversial should not be underestimated .s This is not simply a story about a little girl being raised by two women, or even two lesbians , who , as refugees from heterosexual relationship s, are raising a child from an ended marriage . This little girl does not have and has never had a daddy; she was conceived neither in a bed nor in the back seat of a car. She is a baby whose conception was made possible by a less traditional method . It is this aspect of the story , as well as perhaps the happy and ostensibly normal lives of the lesbians , Kate and Jane, that has given rise to its reception as a controversial book. In this essay, I take this story as a departure point to interrogate and apply the concept of familial ideology. By "familial ideology, " I mean the range of dominant ideas and social prac tices, discourses and prejudices , common sense and social science , in which relations of gender and generation are held out and generall y accepted to be best organized around and through a household comprised of two adults of the opposite sex who (usually) have expressed a primary personal, sexual , and economic commitment to each other and to care for and raise any children they may have. The family is often asserted to be the basic unit of society and is celebrated by religious authorities in quasisacred terms. This form of relationship is often crystallized by marriage and supported by the state as well as by a range of nonstate institutions . The naturalized privacy , independence, interdependency, intimacy, security , and domesticity of this form of relationship are also heralded and accepted .' In this essay, then , I examine the implications of familial ideology in the conte xt in which family members do not resemble the dominant image of the "normal " family: lesbian parents." I explore the extent to which dominant , socially shared understand ings of biological and social reproduction and the relations expressed by the terms "parent" and "child" in law may be simultaneously challenged and...

Share