FAITH, CARE, AND CONTRADICTION: MARY COOPER’S POSTHUMAN MOTHERHOOD IN YOUNG SHELDON

Abstrak

This study explores the representation of Mary Cooper, the mother figure in the television series Young Sheldon (2017–2024), through Rosi Braidotti’s Mother–Monster–Machine framework. As a prequel to The Big Bang Theory, the series revisits the conflict between science and religion in small-town Texas, centering on Mary, a devout Baptist mother raising a child prodigy whose rational worldview often challenges her faith. Using a qualitative descriptive approach with textual and narrative analysis, this research examines episodes that highlight Mary’s negotiations of faith, motherhood, and moral authority. The findings reveal that Mary embodies three interconnected subjectivities: as Mother, she performs care rooted in faith and emotional endurance; as Monster, she embodies the patriarchal fear of religious intensity; and as Machine, she mediates the ideological tension between belief and reason, serving as an ethical interface within her family. These overlapping identities present Mary Cooper as a posthuman hybrid, illustrating how religious motherhood adapts to the contradictions of modernity. The study concludes that Young Sheldon transforms motherhood from a static moral category into an ethical negotiation, redefining faith as both emotional intelligence and a strategy for resilience in a rational, posthuman world.