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Performed youth motherhood: “I never stopped to analyze old photos, but I feel happy and proud to be moving forward”

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No. 24 (2025): Diciembre
https://doi.org/10.5354/2735-7473.2025.82603
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Abstract

This article analyzes the motherhood experience of a young woman who attended secondary school while pregnant and raising her child in an educational institution in Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires. Drawing from a photographic series created by the participant herself, the study explores visual representations of her motherhood. The images were initially shared in 2021, during the COVID-19 lockdown, and jointly revisited in 2023, when the participant was 20 years old and expecting her second child. Utilizing tools from visual anthropology, the research examines how the photographic sequence functions as a performative act that makes her maternal experience visible. Analyzing the photographs revealed how, in specific contexts where these experiences of youth motherhood in marginalized communities occur, invoking values associated with "good motherhood" can serve as an agency strategy to address their "practical interests" and, at times, to constitute themselves as political subjects.

Keywords:

Youth motherhood , Agency , Performativity

Author Biography

Guadalupe Fernández Chein, CONICET

Magíster en Estudios y Políticas de Género, Universidad Nacional de Tres de Febrero. Profesora de Historia, Universidad Nacional de la Patagonia. Doctoranda en Antropología Social, EIDAES-Universidad Nacional de San Martín. Becaria doctoral del CONICET (Instituto Interdisciplinario de Estudios de Género, Facultad de Filosofía y Letras, Universidad de Buenos Aires). Becaria de Doutorado Sanduíche, Programa Movilidad Move la America (MOVE), CAPES, Brasil (Instituto de Medicina Social, Universidade do Estado do Rio de Janeiro).

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How to Cite
Fernández Chein, G. (2025). Performed youth motherhood: “I never stopped to analyze old photos, but I feel happy and proud to be moving forward”. Revista Punto Género, (24), 7–36. https://doi.org/10.5354/2735-7473.2025.82603
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Revista Punto Género
Facultad de Ciencias Sociales
Universidad de Chile
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