The Quiet Protests of Sassy Mom Merch

I don't have kids, but I do have a fascination with sassy mom merch. This may date back to the many post-church Sunday afternoons I spent in my childhood, in Texas, hanging around the Cracker Barrel store, perusing wooden placards about how “if mama ain't happy ain't nobody happy,” or how coffee is actually salad—bean salad. Before social media, these cheerfully harried memes offered a collective construction of maternal identity; now, thanks to Pinterest and Instagram and Etsy, they populate countless online shops, where, in simple block letters or in the flouncy faux-handwriting script that Vox termed “bridesmaid font,” you can find the old quips—and a seemingly infinite number of variations—on mugs, hoodies, T-shirts, and other items. There are gender-specific quasi-laments, like “Support Wildlife, Raise Boys” and “Mama of Drama #GirlMom.” One popular slogan proclaims, “Just a regular mama trying not to raise assholes.” The “Thou Shall Not Try Me: Mood 24:7” shirt uses both block lettering and bridesmaid font. Sometimes, bridesmaid font is combined with rap vernacular to indicate that the mother is busy and capable, as with the tees that say “Domestic Gangsta” or “Mother Hustler.” (Sassy mom merch of this sort seems to be a mostly white phenomenon; its wearers generally lean conservative, at least in their instincts about the centrality of caregiving to female identity.)