“Joyful Warriors”: The Affective Politics of Parental Mobilizations in the US

Abstract: This article investigates right-wing parental activism in terms of its structure of feeling—proactive victimhood and pride in collective agency—manifested in contemporary political experience in the United States. Thinking with and beyond scholars of public emotions, including Raymond Williams, Sara Ahmed, and Lauren Berlant, it argues that the affective economy of the parents’ movement, emerging at the intersections of from-below mobilizations and a top-down orchestration led by lawmakers, policy groups, and media, enables parents to apprehend themselves as a sovereign entity that speaks on behalf of the American people while infusing state policy and civil discourse with categories of feeling.