Juggling identities: Komik Bunda’s representation of “Good” working mothers during the Covid-19 pandemic
Being a working mother during the Covid-19 pandemic has not been easy. Various tweets and posts on social media display the multiple roles that mothers have been expected to play. The dynamics of motherhood during the pandemic were incisively portrayed in Komik Bunda, a comic published on one of the...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Penerbit Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia
2023
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| Online Access: | http://journalarticle.ukm.my/22271/1/jk_19.pdf |
| _version_ | 1796933577102852096 |
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| author | Stephani, Nicky |
| author_facet | Stephani, Nicky |
| author_sort | Stephani, Nicky |
| collection | UKM |
| description | Being a working mother during the Covid-19 pandemic has not been easy. Various tweets and posts on social media display the multiple roles that mothers have been expected to play. The dynamics of motherhood during the pandemic were incisively portrayed in Komik Bunda, a comic published on one of the leading parenting sites in Indonesia, haibunda.com. This qualitative study explores how working mothers negotiate their identities to adapt, persist, and innovate amidst the ups and downs of the pandemic situation in Indonesia. Critical content analysis is performed on 30 comic strips with the theme of motherhood during a pandemic, and the findings are analysed from the perspective of feminist standpoint theory, identity, and representation. This study indicates that women experience an excessive workload resulting from their multiple identities as mothers, teachers, and workers during the pandemic. Negotiation efforts, such as identity segmentation and conceptualising partners as secondary parents, emerged as ways to manage the tensions between identities. The discussion in this study shows that the tension between identities will continue as long as women are confined by the myths of “good” mothers and “ideal” workers promoted by the ideologies of neoliberalism and capitalism. This study concludes that identity negotiation is not only about the identity mothers choose to hold but also about the authenticity and balance displayed by working mothers during and after the pandemic. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-06T04:49:20Z |
| format | Article |
| id | ukm.eprints-22271 |
| institution | Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-06T04:49:20Z |
| publishDate | 2023 |
| publisher | Penerbit Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | ukm.eprints-222712023-09-19T08:08:58Z http://journalarticle.ukm.my/22271/ Juggling identities: Komik Bunda’s representation of “Good” working mothers during the Covid-19 pandemic Stephani, Nicky Being a working mother during the Covid-19 pandemic has not been easy. Various tweets and posts on social media display the multiple roles that mothers have been expected to play. The dynamics of motherhood during the pandemic were incisively portrayed in Komik Bunda, a comic published on one of the leading parenting sites in Indonesia, haibunda.com. This qualitative study explores how working mothers negotiate their identities to adapt, persist, and innovate amidst the ups and downs of the pandemic situation in Indonesia. Critical content analysis is performed on 30 comic strips with the theme of motherhood during a pandemic, and the findings are analysed from the perspective of feminist standpoint theory, identity, and representation. This study indicates that women experience an excessive workload resulting from their multiple identities as mothers, teachers, and workers during the pandemic. Negotiation efforts, such as identity segmentation and conceptualising partners as secondary parents, emerged as ways to manage the tensions between identities. The discussion in this study shows that the tension between identities will continue as long as women are confined by the myths of “good” mothers and “ideal” workers promoted by the ideologies of neoliberalism and capitalism. This study concludes that identity negotiation is not only about the identity mothers choose to hold but also about the authenticity and balance displayed by working mothers during and after the pandemic. Penerbit Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia 2023 Article PeerReviewed application/pdf en http://journalarticle.ukm.my/22271/1/jk_19.pdf Stephani, Nicky (2023) Juggling identities: Komik Bunda’s representation of “Good” working mothers during the Covid-19 pandemic. Jurnal Komunikasi ; Malaysian Journal of Communication, 39 (2). pp. 338-353. ISSN 0128-1496 https://ejournal.ukm.my/mjc/issue/view/1605 |
| spellingShingle | Stephani, Nicky Juggling identities: Komik Bunda’s representation of “Good” working mothers during the Covid-19 pandemic |
| title | Juggling identities: Komik Bunda’s representation of “Good” working mothers
during the Covid-19 pandemic |
| title_full | Juggling identities: Komik Bunda’s representation of “Good” working mothers
during the Covid-19 pandemic |
| title_fullStr | Juggling identities: Komik Bunda’s representation of “Good” working mothers
during the Covid-19 pandemic |
| title_full_unstemmed | Juggling identities: Komik Bunda’s representation of “Good” working mothers
during the Covid-19 pandemic |
| title_short | Juggling identities: Komik Bunda’s representation of “Good” working mothers
during the Covid-19 pandemic |
| title_sort | juggling identities komik bunda s representation of good working mothers during the covid 19 pandemic |
| url | http://journalarticle.ukm.my/22271/1/jk_19.pdf |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT stephaninicky jugglingidentitieskomikbundasrepresentationofgoodworkingmothersduringthecovid19pandemic |