pick of the twitter

It’s Mother’s Day, but Twitter users honor “MOTHER” icons all year

By

Rihanna

This year’s Mother’s Day falls on Sunday, May 14, but you don’t need to celebrate your mother—or “motherr” or “motherrr”—just once every 365 days.

On Twitter, for example, users worship the maternal figures in their lives—pop divas, actors, fictional characters, and even heavenly bodies—all year long.

As Know Your Meme reports, the LGBTQ+ slang term “mother” refers to “an older, caregiving member of a queer community” and dates back centuries.

Paul Baker, author of Fabulosa!: The Story of Polari, Britain’s Secret Gay Language, told Gay Timesearlier this year about Margaret Clap, a cishet woman who earned the nickname “Mother Clap” by running a molly house—i.e. a meeting place for men who had sex with men—in 1720s London.

The term took off in New York City’s ballroom scene during the late 20th century, with Black and Latinx drag performers aligning with houses led by “mothers.”

In the last year, however, “mother” has become a queer and AAVE slang term used in adoration of female celebrities, according to Know Your Meme.

In one pioneering post from March 2022, Twitter user @razorscartier retweeted a photo of Nicki Minaj and wrote, “the way she can do the messiest thing and then serve kunt an hour later she really is mother i’m sorry.”

And in return, celebrities have embraced their mother status. Sarah Paulson said she was the “mommy” to Pedro Pascal’s “daddy” in an SNL sketch this February, for instance. And after she found out what the term meant at a fan event in January, Sarah Michelle Gellar’s Instagram bio simply reads “Mother.”

Below, see some other well-known figures in whom Twitter users have found a MOTHER:

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