Travails with motherhood : auto-ethnographic exploration of being a mother
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Date
2020-03-31
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University of North Bengal
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Chatterjee, Ananya
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Abstract
Motherhood is as much as a sociological as a biological and
physiological construct. Each and every human society has its values, ideas,
duties and responsibilities attached to mothering and motherhood. Even though
the concept of family is changing with the emergence of alternative forms to
traditional patriarchal family, the raising of children is still perceived to be the
sole responsibility of the mother. The expectation that women will become mothers,
forms part of the normative discourses governing motherhood which construct
women’s sexuality and identity through their reproductive function. Cultural
representations of the idealised and sometimes “yummy” mummy (middle class,
attractive, healthy, sexy and heterosexual) contrast with depictions of ‘bad’
mothers proliferate in the popular press. The ideal mother is constructed as
selfless, nurturing, subsuming their own needs to attend to their children’s
demands. The motherhood experience of the working mothers often deviates
from the dominant model of motherhood. In their experience of alternative
motherhood, they are often marginalised in their family and close kin circle
which holds on to the patriarchal definition of motherhood. In this
autoethnographic essay I have explored how my experience of motherhood has
redefined my identity of mother while passing through a course of negotiations
and conflicts with the idealized standards.
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ISSN No
2348-6538