‘To strive for a different place than the one we have lived’: Following Minnie Bruce Pratt’s ‘long stepping out’ toward a wor(l)d after mother

In this work, we explore Minnie Bruce Pratt's white lesbian mothering praxis, teasing out possibilities she leaves for unsettling white imperial/colonial motherhood and the family. Framing our exploration of her life and work with a discussion of settler sexuality, white maternalism, and Black feminist revolutionary mothering we put forth an understanding of Pratt as an <i>insider pushed out</i>. Engaging her poetry and prose we examine how Pratt's transgression is not simply, or at least not only, what led her to take up her lifelong, living intersectional feminist politic. Thinking with Sara Ahmed we tease out Pratt's "complicated" way toward living a solidarity praxis and <i>moving</i> in unending struggle toward collective liberation. Lastly, we engage writing as a method of inquiry and theorize with Pratt, bringing our learning with and from her in conversation with others, especially Sophie Lewis who asks us to consider to what end we are queering mothering. Locating Pratt within world-building and world-ending genealogies that map how we can find and lose ourselves (and more), we ask how we might join her "on foot, in a long stepping out" (2013, 28) toward a wor(l)d after mother?

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Publication Details

Journal
Journal of Lesbian Studies
Published
2025-10-15
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1080/10894160.2025.2572277
Citations
1
Primary Topic
Race, History, and American Society
Type
article
Field-Weighted Citation Impact
4.20
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article

‘To strive for a different place than the one we have lived’: Following Minnie Bruce Pratt’s ‘long stepping out’ toward a wor(l)d after mother

Cristina Maria Dominguez, Meghan A. Watts
1 citations
Journal of Lesbian Studies
Race, History, and American Society
4.20
article

‘To strive for a different place than the one we have lived’: Following Minnie Bruce Pratt’s ‘long stepping out’ toward a wor(l)d after mother

Cristina Maria Dominguez, Meghan A. Watts
article en
1 citations

Abstract

In this work, we explore Minnie Bruce Pratt's white lesbian mothering praxis, teasing out possibilities she leaves for unsettling white imperial/colonial motherhood and the family. Framing our exploration of her life and work with a discussion of settler sexuality, white maternalism, and Black feminist revolutionary mothering we put forth an understanding of Pratt as an <i>insider pushed out</i>. Engaging her poetry and prose we examine how Pratt's transgression is not simply, or at least not only, what led her to take up her lifelong, living intersectional feminist politic. Thinking with Sara Ahmed we tease out Pratt's "complicated" way toward living a solidarity praxis and <i>moving</i> in unending struggle toward collective liberation. Lastly, we engage writing as a method of inquiry and theorize with Pratt, bringing our learning with and from her in conversation with others, especially Sophie Lewis who asks us to consider to what end we are queering mothering. Locating Pratt within world-building and world-ending genealogies that map how we can find and lose ourselves (and more), we ask how we might join her "on foot, in a long stepping out" (2013, 28) toward a wor(l)d after mother?

Journal of Lesbian Studies
North Carolina State University (US), Gender Studies (CZ)
Openalex Percentile: Top 5%
Race, History, and American Society
4.20
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