Mad, Bad, or Victim? Making Sense of Mother–Daughter Sexual Abuse

Abstract

This article explores current rationalizations that classify sexually abusive mothers as mad, bad, or victim. Analyses of these paradigms are informed by survivors’ narratives— because, after all, survivors are the best experts on their lives. Specifically, qualitative data are analyzed from multiple semistructured interviews with women who were sexually abused by their mother or female caregiver. Working within a feminist framework (which critically analyzes the disconnection between societal expectations of mothers with survivors’ experiences of sexual violence), survivor accounts are examined to explore how social constructions based on femininity and motherhood influence survivors’ perception of their mother or female caregiver.