“The maternal ideal oscillates between the sacrificed mother, at the service of the family and children, and the superwoman capable of achieving everything by reconciling work and raising children.”
This is the opening sentence of the book 'Mamá Disobediente. Una Mirada Feminista a la Maternidad' (In the literal translation “Disobedient Mother. A feminist look at motherhood”), by writer Esther Vivas. The Spanish journalist analyzes the challenges facing mothers today.
In an interview with El País , Esther explains why raising children is a political act.
El País - How would you define feminist motherhood?
Esther Vivas - For me, a feminist motherhood is a disobedient motherhood, an unsubmissive motherhood, which breaks with the archetypes that have imposed on us throughout history, which breaks with the patriarchal motherhood that kept mothers imprisoned at home and that devalued the work of children's care. I also believe that it is the one that breaks with the current neoliberal conception of motherhood in which raising and caring for children are subject to the market.
When I speak of this unsubmissive, rebellious, disobedient motherhood, it is not so much a question of idealizing motherhood as of giving it the political, social and economic value that it has and which is denied to it.
EP. What would you say feminism has to offer motherhood, and vice versa?
Esther Vivas - Traditionally, motherhood is a very uncomfortable topic for feminism, because it is a control mechanism of patriarchy. Feminism rebelled against this imposition, but no deep debates were held about what motherhood implies, and an unresolved relationship between feminism and motherhood remains. Therefore, I do not believe that it is a question of denying the fact that we are mothers, but of the conditions in which we are mothers in the patriarchy. The problem of motherhood is not motherhood itself, but rather the instrumentalization that patriarchy has made of motherhood. From a feminist point of view, what must be done, and I quote Adrianne Rich, is to break with this “institution” of motherhood, with this imposition of what motherhood should be, and recover the maternal experience without idealizing it, in order to be able to live it freely.
EP. You mentioned earlier that we must give motherhood the political, social and economic value that it has. Should it then be a public matter?
Esther Vivas - Of course, motherhood and raising children should be a public matter. Experiencing motherhood fully is not something that should be claimed not only from an individual point of view, but also from a social and political point of view, because, after all, the way we are going to live it does not depend only on the practices we can take ahead, but also of the environment where this maternity is exercised. And the environment, unfortunately, is hostile to creation, hostile to mothers. Obstetric violence is a clear example of how mothers' needs are not taken into account. It is also clearly seen in breastfeeding, because we live in a society that makes this practice difficult.
( • )
chest.me
@putapeita
/bitch
