Family Metaphors and the Nation: Promoting a Politics of Care through the Million Mom March

The causes for which maternity has been invoked are as divergent as they are ubiquitous, yet the popularity of maternal politics among activists is not matched by an equally enthusiastic or unified assessment from scholars. On the contrary, scholars vigorously debate maternal appeals' strategic efficacy as well as their implications for gender norms. In this essay I argue that George Lakoff's discussion of the nation-as-family metaphor illuminates the political potency and the potential effectiveness of maternal appeals as well as their implications for gender norms. I illustrate my argument through an analysis of the Million Mom March.