Although Agnes and Mary pursuing a queer relationship is subversive, respectability politics are at play. Mary, being a cop and stealth, participates in and upholds Moralton’s hegemony through law-enforcement. Likewise, Agnes repeatedly constraints her expression to fit into Moralton i.e. her attempting to lure creepler, stopping herself from pointing out that the ‘foreigner’ looks like the missing link, etc. Although their attempt to marry was deemed inappropriate in Moralton, them marrying soon after meeting each other speaks towards their interest in assimilation and maintaining respectability

Despite Agnes being a single mother, she’d likely exist on the border of Moralton’s respectability through her involvement in creepler’s incarceration and by being in a relationship with a male-presenting cop, thus giving the child a father figure.

Despite being a single mother, Agnes would likely maintain Moralton’s respect due to her role in Creepler’s incarceration and her relationship with a male-presenting cop, thus providing her child a father figure and modeling something approximating to a nuclear family. Following this idea, Agnes might call Mary the kid’s (step-)dad until the child is old enough not to accidentally out her.

I toyed with Agnes’s OCD-like symptoms metastasising as intrusive thoughts about harming Hangela (e.g., POCD, note that I don’t suffer from POCD so I’m open to being corrected if my interpretation of the disorder is inaccurate), making routine childcare tasks such as breastfeeding, holding, changing, bathing, etc distressing unless Mary is present

I think Coathangler’s gender also matters. If Agnes had a daughter, she likely wouldn’t want to pass on the sexual shame and purity culture she grew up with.

Despite Agnes being capable of some positive pedagogy in Courtship before financially abusing Doughy, Orel does note her lack of ‘warmth’ in the Blessed Union. Agnes’ dry demeanor might hinder her ability to adequately emotionally mirror her baby. I can see her being the type of person that doesn’t modify her demeanor when interacting with babies, like talking to Hangela with her normal speaking tone. I headcanon that Agnes, growing up, had to stonewall her parents to get by, which made it her default response to seeing someone blow up at her. Obviously a child crying, acting out, or throwing a tantrum isn’t the same situation, the schema of emotionally shutting down and not reacting could persist in her relationship with Hangela

I imagine Agnes wouldn’t modify her intonation when interacting with baby Hangela, opting to speak in her normal tone of voice. Something I headcanon is that, growing up, Agnes stonewalled her parents in response to them blowing up at her. While a child’s crying or tantrums aren’t the same, the schema of emotionally shutting down and not reacting may persist when parenting Hangela

In the Still Face Experiment, babies react to unresponsive mothers with extreme distress in attempt to get their parent to reciprocate. The infant then withdraws, and orients their face and body away from their parent

Cops in moralton work long hours but are paid a lot. To compensate for her lack of physically available, Mary is probably a lot more brazen and affectionate to Hangela, and use her money to buy Hangela toys. That being said, to keep in line with how transitional objects are presented in the show, I imagine that Hangela’s toys are mostly metal or plastic, and lack the warmth and tactility she craves to represent how Mary’s toys are inadequate in satisfying the affection she craves.

cops in Moralton work long hours but are well-paid. To compensate for her absence, Mary would probably be brazenly affectionate with Hangela and would buy her toys. However, to mirror how Moral Orel portrays transitional objects, Hangela lacks soft toys, instead having toys mostly made out of hard wooden/plastic materials i.e. toy vehicles, building blocks, pull-along toys, miniature figurines, etc, to represent how Mary’s toys are inadequate in satisfying the comfort she craves

At the end of God’s Image, Agnes is one of the many townsfolk brandishing a belt. Mary and Agnes likely both believe in corporal punishment, but coupled with Agnes OCD-like symptoms manifesting as anxiety that she’d harm Hangela, Mary would likely be the primary parent administering corporal punishment. In comparison, Agnes would probably either stonewall Hangela (maybe not intentionally as punishment, but a child noticing that their parent is colder than usual might take it as punishment) or telling her off, based on how she disciplines her class. On top of Agnes’ coldness, this whiplash between Mary’s warmth, her role as in administering corporal punishment , and her physical unavailability would feed into Hangela’s psyche and disorganized attachment.

Playing into Mary being a Stephanie foil, her warmth (which Agnes lacks) and affection towards Hangela may subtly challenge some of Agnes’ preconceptions surrounding gender and her own upbringing. Agnes might see Mary’s brazen love towards her in Raped as romantic, but may find it unusual when directed at Hangela in a paternalistic way. Besides Hangela being a sore spot for Agnes and speculation on the degree to which she experienced paternalistic affection growing up, in Moralton, it’s culturally ingrained that fathers aren’t typically affectionate towards their children. Consequently, she may need to sit with and re-evaluate her views, which would be a step forward for her

Another thing to consider is how Hangela would handle the information about Creepler ,and how it might differ depending on Hangela’s gender

As mentioned before, Agnes would try not to enforce chastity onto her child. I image this would be more impactful for Hangela compared to Hank, as Agnes’ guidance may not exactly translate towards the often contradictory social norms men are expected to follow

The obvious extrapolation from Agnes giving birth to a boy is that ,during his adolescence, Hank would draw a comparison between his sexuality and Cecil’s motivations. Even if Hank holds resentment against Agnes into adulthood, he’d still understand the trauma Cecil caused, and would try not to mirror Creepler in any aspect. This could result in some sexual shame surrounding feeling predatory, but in a way that’s not out of line for Moralton. Although women/girls are capable of being rapists, a girl in the context of Moralton might not naturally draw comparisons between her sexuality and her biological father’s predation on women (unless she was a lesbian), so I’ll be primarily focusing on Hank

Not to portray lesbian sexuality as somehow ‘purer’, but due to Mary practically not having many romantic options in Moralton as well as not being as intentionally misogynistic as men, she probably couldn’t fully immerse herself in Moralton’s fraternal, machismo culture afforded to ‘bachelors’. That being said, Mary may have habitualized to her workplace’s sexism. One could imagine Police stations in Moralton operate like fraternities. Not that Mary would necessarily *approve* of the misogyny she sees or hears, but she might just shrug it off. Not that Mary would necessarily *approve* of the misogyny she sees or hears, but she might just shrug it off. Hank, if he takes notice of this, might realise that Mary isn’t totally impartial, even if he usually respects her guidance