Snowboarding Mums Carve Out Fresh Tracks: Resisting traditional motherhood discourse?

Abstract

The purpose of this research was to explore the experiences of mothers who snowboard. Snowboarding was selected because the discourses surrounding the sport typically embody freedom, hedonism, and irresponsibility (Humphreys, 1996). These characteristics are at odds with traditional notions of motherhood (Miller & Brown, 2005). A feminist post‐structural approach was adopted, utilising Foucault's concepts of power, knowledge, truth, and resistance to investigate how the mothers shaped their identities and social relations. Five snowboarders were interviewed. It is argued that these snowboarding mothers resisted the social expectations created by the ‘ideology of motherhood’ by redefining what it means to be a ‘good mother’ and by creating practices to achieve their own happiness. Support from partners and other family members was integral to this.