White Picket Fence Wonder Media Network

Maybe you’ve noticed it -- we're in the midst of a moral panic about marriage. Pundits and politicians have become awfully concerned that people are marrying later, and less often. That a growing number of adults are living alone, without a spouse or partner. That divorce remains relatively common. That many women are having and raising kids as single mothers. Now, conservatives waxing poetic about family values is hardly new. But this is more than just hand-wringing with a microphone -- these folks are actually doing something about it. In the first episode of our new season, we're exploring the return of the marriage panic.

This season, we're diving into the hallowed institution of marriage. We want to know why so many people are getting so whipped up over the ways that Americans are — or are not — forming relationships and building families. Why marriage is becoming, once again, the catch-all policy solution for all of our country's challenges. And what becomes possible when we broaden our imaginations around what relationships can look like. We'll go beyond the rosy sheen of love and commitment and expose the darker side to all of this marriage talk -- one that we have to pay attention to, if we want to maintain our social progress in this country.

Organizing around motherhood works. It can activate women politically by helping them tap into a powerful identity. But maternal activism can also have some unintended consequences that don't advance justice. So in the final episode of the season, we're asking this season’s guests: should the left still be playing into maternalist politics? Or can we evolve beyond it — to a kind of politics that focuses on values, not a fixed identity, and makes space for all caregivers?

Much of the motherhood activism that is lifted up in our politics portrays women in a certain way: as uniquely moral, even apolitical, actors who were compelled to take action because they fear for their children’s safety. It’s a myth that's highly racially coded and obscures the realities of motherhood. The truth? Motherhood is political. Moms are political. And when we start acknowledging that and centering the most marginalized moms in our activism — their needs and experiences — we end up building better policies for all of us.

The political identity of "mother" is not owned by the right. There's also a rich history of mothers working to advance progressive change. Yet the framing of much of this activism—a mother spurred to action when awakened to a threat to her child's safety—remains grounded in an image of motherhood that is riddled with race and class privilege. Shannon Watts, the founder of Moms Demand Action, began her activism journey as a stay-at-home suburban mom of five who felt compelled to fight for common-sense gun violence prevention in the wake of the Sandy Hook school shooting. But when Shannon met Rep. Lucy McBath, then a mother grieving the loss of her son, Jordan, to gun violence, something shifted. The more Moms Demand Action expanded their focus and passed the microphone to Black women who had been working on the issue for years, the more powerful Moms Demand Action became.

In the summer of 2022, Hungary's prime minister, Viktor Orban, flew to Texas to speak at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC). Onstage, his tirades against immigration, gender studies, and LGBTQ rights were met with roars of approval. Orban has made it his mission to codify traditional family values into law—and dismantle democracy in the process. American conservatives are taking note. And paving the way for these extremist policies is a group of social media "momfluencers" touting the glory of traditional family life. Are Moms for Liberty and #tradwives the harbingers of a backslide when it comes to women’s rights...and American democracy?