Family Stories and other “Kinscapes”

The family unit is where we have our first experience of identification with a group and take our early steps toward socialization. The word “family” generally has a positive connotation, evoking kinship and a sense of belonging. The word is so powerful that its biological and genealogical meanings are broadened to encompass forms of affiliation with a community of mind — the chosen family — particularly when the immediate family does not offer the expected sense of security and comfort.  

Although the traditional family has gradually been transformed, becoming less normative, its symbolic and social significance still weighs on our conception of a harmonious home. Society still applies pressure to become a parent, for example — and, especially, to become a mother. As Austin Henderson emphasizes in the feature section in this issue, “Under capitalism’s demand for renewal and procreation, society has developed a presumed need for heterosexual family structures. Paired with this is the promise of producing a ‘happy family’ as a selling point for the machine of social reproduction.”