Cox told Aperture in 2016: 

 

“That’s how the series Yo Mama (1992–94) came about. I decided I’m going to give you pregnancy in your face—and that’s what I did. In other societies, women 
have allowed the males to dominate. I was like, No. Women are fucking strong. You make somebody in forty weeks; that’s pretty phenomenal. That’s the power of a woman.”

​

Cox was the first pregnant woman to attend the Whitney Independent Study Program in 1993, which resulted in her Yo Mama series of images of empowered maternal figures, including a seven-foot tall statue featured in Marcia Tucker’s seminal Bad Girls exhibition at the New Museum.