A Maternal Heart: Angelina Jolie,choices of maternity,and hegemonic femininity in People magazine

In the last decade practices of celebrity transnational adoption have garnered a significant amount of media attention. Through an analysis of transnational adoption as a site of morality where ideals of femininity are enacted and embodied, this paper brings together celebrity studies, theories of maternity, and literature on adoption in pursuit of studying hegemonic femininity as a social phenomenon spread by media discourses. Focusing on Angelina Jolie as an epistemic individual, this paper draws on concepts of female moral authority, global motherhood, and successful femininity to explore the ways transnational adoption adheres to norms of femininity and norms of racial hierarchy in an era of autonomy and choice. In a critical discourse analysis of articles covering Jolie’s transnational adoptions from People magazine, narratives of choice, individualism, and mobility emerge. Such narratives contribute to Jolie's hegemonic position as a globe-trotting, mobile figure of successful femininity made possible by her position in gendered, raced, and classed hierarchies. Jolie's presence in the mediascape continues to signal boundaries of femininity through choices enabled and constrained by historical ideals of motherhood, global dynamics of transnational adoption, and expectations of female moral authority.