Expanding What Motherhood Looks Like, One TV Show at a Time

Listen, y’all: Connie Britton’s tough yet compassionate Friday Night Lights character remains one of our most inspirational depictions of Texas womanhood.

The Gilmore Girls star has elevated the single mother to a protagonist worth investing in.

It’s her parenting style I find most refreshing: It’s hands-off yet engaged. Loving yet direct.

Whereas immigrant parents can sometimes be reduced to stereotypes on screen, Nalini—as well as Devi’s late father, Mohan, who appears in flashbacks—are depicted with unrelenting honesty.

In six seasons and nearly three decades of syndication, the fierce mother of three has transcended the small screen and shot into icon status.

The news of Walter’s death has made me realize how much it meant to me to see a mother figure on TV who wasn’t perpetually warm or nurturing.

Each character synthesizes the societal expectations placed upon them and subverts them by acting as a formidable matriarchal unit.

Happy homemakers could be found on every network, from the patient mom Margaret Anderson of Father Knows Best to the profoundly agreeable June Cleaver of Leave It to Beaver. Instead, on I Love Lucy, Lucy was a hot mess.

Re-examining a character who once personified Ideal Black Motherhood.

On television, there are many depictions of motherhood—good, bad, and everything in between—but I want to celebrate someone that I think is one of television’s best mothers: Blanca Evangelista from the FX series Pose.

In our real lives, our moms also existed mostly as supporting characters, secondary to our school or relationship dramas, appearing only when we needed a ride, someone to sign a permission slip, or occasionally, a hug. Thinking of them as fully formed humans with their own dreams and passions would never have crossed our minds.

The anthropomorphic dog and her family have put Australia on the centre of the world stage—and captured hearts along the way.

Over five seasons of television, Pamela Adlon’s FX series, Better Things, has been a tribute to keeping on when you can’t anymore, and to all the people—many of them women—who carry their families because no one else will.