Rearticulating the Aunt: Feminist Alternatives of Family, Care, and Kinship in Popular Performances of Aunting

Abstract

The aunt in contemporary Anglo-American culture is a deserving though oft-overlooked cultural identity for critical feminist analysis. This article examines selected performances of aunting in contemporary U.S. popular culture to illustrate how the cultural work of aunting articulates both dominant and transgressive constructions of family, care, kinship, and feminine agency. The quiet transgressions of popular aunt figures offer potent sites for progressive feminist rearticulations of family life and kinship relations.