The basic premise of this article is that despite the many representations of mothers in the history of art, the maternal image has almost invariably been presented in the status of object, i.e., a reflection of the value system, interests, and perspective of the patriarchal culture, and not of the mother herself. This study examines the construction of the maternal ideal in western, particularly Israeli, culture, and suggests the turning point over the past twenty years as contemporary artist-mothers (mama’artists) have undermined this ideal. To avoid the traditional structure into which the mother has been relegated, the article adopts the matricentric perspective of Canadian scholar Andrea O’Reilly, who places the mother at the center of feminist discourse. With the understanding that the category mother intersects with, but is distinct from, the category woman, art scholarship must formulate more valid narratives. This paper has two goals. One is to examine how matricentric research can contribute to analysis of the work of artist-mothers. The second is to identify the tools in art that enable expression of the political-maternal subjectivity. The methodology proceeds from these goals, and includes the voice of the artist, her personal story, and her perspective as she creates an imagined art world. These were obtained by studio meetings with the artist, personal interviews, and a gender analysis of the art. The video series under study was created between 2005 and 2015 by Mali De-Kalo, an Israeli mother-artist. The research revealed an original, thought-provoking, and ironic artistic reaction with dramatic theater-of-the-absurd elements that reflect her critique of the mechanisms of construction and replication of the social order and its expectations of the Israeli mother. De-Kalo represents a new spirit in Israeli art –a contemporary artist in courageous defiance of the social norm that casts the mother as object; she depicts in her art a political-maternal subject who exposes and opposes patriarchal power in the social and artistic realms.
本文的基本前提是，尽管母亲在艺术史上有许多表现，但母亲形象几乎总是以客体的身份呈现，即父权文化的价值体系、利益和视角的反映，而不是母亲本人的反映。这项研究考察了西方，特别是以色列文化中母亲理想的构建，并提出了过去二十年来当代艺术家母亲（妈妈艺术家）破坏这一理想的转折点。为了避免母亲被归入传统结构，本文采用了加拿大学者安德里亚·奥莱利的矩阵中心视角，他将母亲置于女权主义话语的中心。有了对母亲这一范畴与女性这一范畴相交但又不同的理解，艺术学术必须形成更有效的叙事。本文有两个目标。一个是考察以母体为中心的研究如何有助于分析艺术家母亲的作品。第二是确定艺术中能够表达政治母性主体性的工具。方法论从这些目标出发，包括艺术家的声音、她的个人故事以及她在创造想象中的艺术世界时的视角。这些都是通过与艺术家的工作室会议、个人采访和对艺术的性别分析获得的。正在研究的视频系列由以色列母亲艺术家Mali De Kalo于2005年至2015年间创作。这项研究揭示了她对社会秩序的构建和复制机制及其对以色列母亲的期望的批判，其中包含了荒诞元素的戏剧性戏剧，这是一种独创的、发人深省的、具有讽刺意味的艺术反应。德卡洛代表了以色列艺术中的一种新精神——一位勇敢反抗将母亲视为对象的社会规范的当代艺术家；她在艺术中塑造了一个在社会和艺术领域揭露和反对父权制的政治母性主体。
{"title":"The theater of motherhood","authors":"Hadara Scheflan Katzav","doi":"10.14198/fem.2023.41.12","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.14198/fem.2023.41.12","url":null,"abstract":"The basic premise of this article is that despite the many representations of mothers in the history of art, the maternal image has almost invariably been presented in the status of object, i.e., a reflection of the value system, interests, and perspective of the patriarchal culture, and not of the mother herself. This study examines the construction of the maternal ideal in western, particularly Israeli, culture, and suggests the turning point over the past twenty years as contemporary artist-mothers (mama’artists) have undermined this ideal. To avoid the traditional structure into which the mother has been relegated, the article adopts the matricentric perspective of Canadian scholar Andrea O’Reilly, who places the mother at the center of feminist discourse. With the understanding that the category mother intersects with, but is distinct from, the category woman, art scholarship must formulate more valid narratives. This paper has two goals. One is to examine how matricentric research can contribute to analysis of the work of artist-mothers. The second is to identify the tools in art that enable expression of the political-maternal subjectivity. The methodology proceeds from these goals, and includes the voice of the artist, her personal story, and her perspective as she creates an imagined art world. These were obtained by studio meetings with the artist, personal interviews, and a gender analysis of the art. The video series under study was created between 2005 and 2015 by Mali De-Kalo, an Israeli mother-artist. The research revealed an original, thought-provoking, and ironic artistic reaction with dramatic theater-of-the-absurd elements that reflect her critique of the mechanisms of construction and replication of the social order and its expectations of the Israeli mother. De-Kalo represents a new spirit in Israeli art –a contemporary artist in courageous defiance of the social norm that casts the mother as object; she depicts in her art a political-maternal subject who exposes and opposes patriarchal power in the social and artistic realms.","PeriodicalId":32557,"journal":{"name":"Feminismos","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-01-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46286847","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
This article examines the narratives of mixtec women from Oaxaca, Mexico, who migrated to Oxnard City, California, USA. The ethnographies derived from their migratory process were analyzed through 27 in-depth interviews. The complexity involved in the study of international migration, intersected with gender and ethnicity, has required a multi-methodology in accordance with this specificity. Through a decolonized investigation this research examine the situations of inequality and oppression that affect indigenous women, defined in different historical contexts than those of urban, white, western and heterosexual women, which classic feminism has formulated. The first section of the article focuses on the narratives of transmigration, which are analyzed in relation to the dimensions that influence and intervene in terms of gender roles. The second section explore the complexity of transnational motherhood in the host society as mothers or mothers-to-be, approaching the multidynamics of transnational care, and how the health management of pregnancy is a complex issue in the face of cultural difference and the lack of an inter-ethnic sensitive health care system. This research highlights the challenges and cultural impacts that they face as indigenous women, migrant women, and mothers, in a transnational and migratory context. Everything related to their role as mothers is very complex, since they are the ones who entirely take care of their family. This assumption of care empowers the agency of these women who are attentive to their family on both sides of the border. This research has focused an approach on these subjects and underline how colonialism, gender and ethnocentrism constantly act on indigenous populations, greatly affecting women, as well as to highlight on the transformative and significant involvement and agency of these women.
{"title":"Ethnographies of migrant mixtec women in California. An anthropological approach to narratives of transmigration, transnational motherhood and pregnancy in the context of western medicine","authors":"María Aránzazu Robles Santana","doi":"10.14198/fem.2023.41.08","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.14198/fem.2023.41.08","url":null,"abstract":"This article examines the narratives of mixtec women from Oaxaca, Mexico, who migrated to Oxnard City, California, USA. The ethnographies derived from their migratory process were analyzed through 27 in-depth interviews. The complexity involved in the study of international migration, intersected with gender and ethnicity, has required a multi-methodology in accordance with this specificity. Through a decolonized investigation this research examine the situations of inequality and oppression that affect indigenous women, defined in different historical contexts than those of urban, white, western and heterosexual women, which classic feminism has formulated. The first section of the article focuses on the narratives of transmigration, which are analyzed in relation to the dimensions that influence and intervene in terms of gender roles. The second section explore the complexity of transnational motherhood in the host society as mothers or mothers-to-be, approaching the multidynamics of transnational care, and how the health management of pregnancy is a complex issue in the face of cultural difference and the lack of an inter-ethnic sensitive health care system. This research highlights the challenges and cultural impacts that they face as indigenous women, migrant women, and mothers, in a transnational and migratory context. Everything related to their role as mothers is very complex, since they are the ones who entirely take care of their family. This assumption of care empowers the agency of these women who are attentive to their family on both sides of the border. This research has focused an approach on these subjects and underline how colonialism, gender and ethnocentrism constantly act on indigenous populations, greatly affecting women, as well as to highlight on the transformative and significant involvement and agency of these women.","PeriodicalId":32557,"journal":{"name":"Feminismos","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-01-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43637813","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
«Maternal rule» is the expression used by a Spanish noblewoman from the kingdom of Seville in her last will and testament, written in the 16th century, to justify the authority she holds over her children. Based on the hypothesis that this is not merely her own individual perception, but rather that it corresponds to her experiences living within a specific emotional community, this paper carries out a comparative analysis with the testaments of two other women from the same territory and social group, with a view to understanding their maternal affective experiences. The documentation examined spans almost a century and includes information and instructions that characterise the lives and lifestyles of three women: María de Mendoza (+1493), Catalina de Ribera (+1505), and María Andrea Coronel de Guzmán y Sotomayor (+1589). However, they are written from the subjective perspective of a woman facing death, who wishes to retain her influence and at times control over her children even after she has disappeared from their lives, reflecting on her own soul. The main conclusions reached would indicate that they belonged to the same emotional community: Christian, aristocratic, with a gender role assignation that did not prevent them from exercising rule in certain areas, especially when they became widowed and gained authority over their children. However, they experience motherhood differently depending on whether their children are adults or still minors as the mothers face death. But above all, the way in which they exercise their motherhood is influenced by their personalities and predisposition. In any case, they use their last will and testament to give orders and advice to their descendants through a language that shows their motherly affections and disaffections. These are documents through which they can settle emotional scores through their legacies with a view to expressly leaving their children on the same or different footings. And, finally, beyond biological motherhood, we see how the caregiving role taken on by these women extends through affection or responsibility to other members of the social group.
{"title":"Maternal rule. Affection, power, and patrimony expressed through testamentary wills (15th-16th centuries)","authors":"Ana María Aranda Bernal","doi":"10.14198/fem.2023.41.02","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.14198/fem.2023.41.02","url":null,"abstract":"«Maternal rule» is the expression used by a Spanish noblewoman from the kingdom of Seville in her last will and testament, written in the 16th century, to justify the authority she holds over her children. Based on the hypothesis that this is not merely her own individual perception, but rather that it corresponds to her experiences living within a specific emotional community, this paper carries out a comparative analysis with the testaments of two other women from the same territory and social group, with a view to understanding their maternal affective experiences. The documentation examined spans almost a century and includes information and instructions that characterise the lives and lifestyles of three women: María de Mendoza (+1493), Catalina de Ribera (+1505), and María Andrea Coronel de Guzmán y Sotomayor (+1589). However, they are written from the subjective perspective of a woman facing death, who wishes to retain her influence and at times control over her children even after she has disappeared from their lives, reflecting on her own soul. The main conclusions reached would indicate that they belonged to the same emotional community: Christian, aristocratic, with a gender role assignation that did not prevent them from exercising rule in certain areas, especially when they became widowed and gained authority over their children. However, they experience motherhood differently depending on whether their children are adults or still minors as the mothers face death. But above all, the way in which they exercise their motherhood is influenced by their personalities and predisposition. In any case, they use their last will and testament to give orders and advice to their descendants through a language that shows their motherly affections and disaffections. These are documents through which they can settle emotional scores through their legacies with a view to expressly leaving their children on the same or different footings. And, finally, beyond biological motherhood, we see how the caregiving role taken on by these women extends through affection or responsibility to other members of the social group.","PeriodicalId":32557,"journal":{"name":"Feminismos","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-01-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43609144","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Dolores Serrano-Niza, María Eugenia Monzón Perdomo
Este trabajo toma como punto de partida el análisis de los protocolos notariales otorgados en Canarias en ese periodo de tiempo que supone el tránsito de la Edad Media a la Moderna con el objetivo último de estudiar los objetos estrechamente vinculados al ámbito doméstico que las mujeres legaban a otras mujeres. Este hecho que hemos interpretado como afecto maternal, tiene, al mismo tiempo, suma importancia para la historia de las mujeres. Nuestro objetivo, como ya ha quedado dicho, ha sido interrogar a nuestra fuente sobre un territorio largamente orillado por la historiografía: las emociones y los sentimientos, más concretamente por los sentimientos ligados a la maternidad. Sin duda, historizar la experiencia de la maternidad en los inicios de la modernidad no se presenta como una tarea sencilla, puesto que el silencio de las fuentes es atronador. Sin embargo, una lectura atenta de la documentación ha desvelado que había muchas maneras de sentir la maternidad. Dicho de otro modo, la maternidad no siempre estuvo asociada al hecho biológico de la concepción y el parto. El estudio de los ajuares domésticos que se detallan en los testamentos ha puesto de manifiesto, como hemos señalado, que hay una transmisión preferente de los enseres propios de las mujeres a otras mujeres. Aunque los vínculos que unen a estas mujeres de generaciones distintas solían ser de parentesco familiar, sin embargo, no es extraño que también sirvan para recompensar la amistad, la lealtad y el cuidado entre féminas, existan o no lazos de sangre. En este sentido, no se lega solo el objeto, sino que este lleva consigo el afecto de su propietaria y, junto a este acto afectivo, aparece la intención de arropar materialmente a otras mujeres. En definitiva, estos ajuares acaban siendo una cuestión de género, en tanto en cuanto estaban destinados a proteger a mujeres más jóvenes, muchas de ellas huérfanas, cuyo destino último solía ser el matrimonio.
{"title":"Afectos maternales: los objetos de ajuar en la herencia de las mujeres (siglo XVI)","authors":"Dolores Serrano-Niza, María Eugenia Monzón Perdomo","doi":"10.14198/fem.2023.41.03","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.14198/fem.2023.41.03","url":null,"abstract":"Este trabajo toma como punto de partida el análisis de los protocolos notariales otorgados en Canarias en ese periodo de tiempo que supone el tránsito de la Edad Media a la Moderna con el objetivo último de estudiar los objetos estrechamente vinculados al ámbito doméstico que las mujeres legaban a otras mujeres. Este hecho que hemos interpretado como afecto maternal, tiene, al mismo tiempo, suma importancia para la historia de las mujeres. Nuestro objetivo, como ya ha quedado dicho, ha sido interrogar a nuestra fuente sobre un territorio largamente orillado por la historiografía: las emociones y los sentimientos, más concretamente por los sentimientos ligados a la maternidad. Sin duda, historizar la experiencia de la maternidad en los inicios de la modernidad no se presenta como una tarea sencilla, puesto que el silencio de las fuentes es atronador. Sin embargo, una lectura atenta de la documentación ha desvelado que había muchas maneras de sentir la maternidad. Dicho de otro modo, la maternidad no siempre estuvo asociada al hecho biológico de la concepción y el parto. El estudio de los ajuares domésticos que se detallan en los testamentos ha puesto de manifiesto, como hemos señalado, que hay una transmisión preferente de los enseres propios de las mujeres a otras mujeres. Aunque los vínculos que unen a estas mujeres de generaciones distintas solían ser de parentesco familiar, sin embargo, no es extraño que también sirvan para recompensar la amistad, la lealtad y el cuidado entre féminas, existan o no lazos de sangre. En este sentido, no se lega solo el objeto, sino que este lleva consigo el afecto de su propietaria y, junto a este acto afectivo, aparece la intención de arropar materialmente a otras mujeres. En definitiva, estos ajuares acaban siendo una cuestión de género, en tanto en cuanto estaban destinados a proteger a mujeres más jóvenes, muchas de ellas huérfanas, cuyo destino último solía ser el matrimonio.","PeriodicalId":32557,"journal":{"name":"Feminismos","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-01-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42742966","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Motherhood can be argued to be a central theme in many recent Spanish horror films. From El Orfanato/ The Orphanage or Los Otros/ The Others to, more recently, Las Brujas de Zugarramurdi/ Witching and Bitching or Musarañas/ Shrew’s Nest, to mention but a few, their narratives are based on the figure of the (Good/Bad) mother. Their struggles and choices in mothering move the action forward and bring horror to the story, ultimately depicting them as «the problem to be solved» (Davies, 2011, p. 82). Using Mama (Muschietti, 2013) as a case study, this article seeks to explore how motherhood is constructed in contemporary Spanish horror film and how this might respond to the specificities of the Spanish social and historical context. For this purpose, the research will particularly focus on the journey that the main female character undergoes throughout the narrative, from the reluctant mother and rock star to the «all-nurturing and self-abnegating Angel of the House» (Kaplan, 2000, p. 468). However, the outcome of the research highlights that this transition is strongly based on patriarchal principles that shape the ideal of good motherhood. The problematic narrative also conceives maternity as a woman’s ultimate goal and fulfilment vehicle and assumes maternal instincts exist and are innate to women. Moreover, the study has also uncovered how the confrontation between the good and the bad mother functions as a reinforcement of a very specific maternal style that is highly influenced by Franco’s ideology in relation to family, gender roles and female identity. Thus, although the film depicts the struggles of motherhood from a female point of view, it also portrays the horror and terrible consequences of challenging the patriarchal order, therefore promoting an outdated and patriarchal notion of good mothering.
母性可以说是最近许多西班牙恐怖电影的中心主题。从El Orfanato/ The Orphanage或Los Otros/ The Others到最近的Las Brujas de Zugarramurdi/ witch and Bitching或Musarañas/ Shrew 's Nest，仅举几例，它们的叙事都是基于(好/坏)母亲的形象。她们在养育孩子方面的挣扎和选择推动了故事的发展，并给故事带来了恐怖，最终将她们描述为“需要解决的问题”(Davies, 2011, p. 82)。本文以《妈妈》(Muschietti, 2013)为例，探讨当代西班牙恐怖电影中母性是如何建构的，以及这可能如何回应西班牙社会和历史背景的特殊性。为此，本研究将特别关注主要女性角色在整个叙事过程中所经历的旅程，从不情愿的母亲和摇滚明星到“家中养育一切和自我克制的天使”(卡普兰，2000，第468页)。然而，研究结果强调，这种转变强烈地建立在塑造好母亲理想的父权原则的基础上。有问题的叙述还将母性视为女性的最终目标和实现工具，并假设母性本能存在并且是女性与生俱来的。此外，该研究还揭示了好母亲和坏母亲之间的对抗是如何强化一种非常特殊的母亲风格的，这种风格深受佛朗哥在家庭、性别角色和女性身份方面的意识形态的影响。因此，虽然这部电影从女性的角度描绘了母性的斗争，但它也描绘了挑战父权秩序的恐怖和可怕的后果，从而促进了一种过时的父权制的好母亲观念。
{"title":"Mama: An exploration of gender and motherhood in contemporary Spanish horror film","authors":"Irene Baena-Cuder","doi":"10.14198/fem.2023.41.11","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.14198/fem.2023.41.11","url":null,"abstract":"Motherhood can be argued to be a central theme in many recent Spanish horror films. From El Orfanato/ The Orphanage or Los Otros/ The Others to, more recently, Las Brujas de Zugarramurdi/ Witching and Bitching or Musarañas/ Shrew’s Nest, to mention but a few, their narratives are based on the figure of the (Good/Bad) mother. Their struggles and choices in mothering move the action forward and bring horror to the story, ultimately depicting them as «the problem to be solved» (Davies, 2011, p. 82). Using Mama (Muschietti, 2013) as a case study, this article seeks to explore how motherhood is constructed in contemporary Spanish horror film and how this might respond to the specificities of the Spanish social and historical context. For this purpose, the research will particularly focus on the journey that the main female character undergoes throughout the narrative, from the reluctant mother and rock star to the «all-nurturing and self-abnegating Angel of the House» (Kaplan, 2000, p. 468). However, the outcome of the research highlights that this transition is strongly based on patriarchal principles that shape the ideal of good motherhood. The problematic narrative also conceives maternity as a woman’s ultimate goal and fulfilment vehicle and assumes maternal instincts exist and are innate to women. Moreover, the study has also uncovered how the confrontation between the good and the bad mother functions as a reinforcement of a very specific maternal style that is highly influenced by Franco’s ideology in relation to family, gender roles and female identity. Thus, although the film depicts the struggles of motherhood from a female point of view, it also portrays the horror and terrible consequences of challenging the patriarchal order, therefore promoting an outdated and patriarchal notion of good mothering.","PeriodicalId":32557,"journal":{"name":"Feminismos","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-01-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"41579210","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Like many other regions in Europe, Catalonia has seen significant changes in the demographics of motherhood over recent decades, with decreasing fertility rates and an increase in the average age of women at the birth of the first child. Together with increased social awareness of gender and identity issues such as gestational loss or the sexual and reproductive rights of people with disabilities, this changing landscape seems to have had a noteworthy impact on contemporary Catalan theatre. Indeed, throughout the long 2010s, a significant number of female-authored plays focused on motherhood premiered in Catalan venues, and a significant portion of these addressed doubtful, fraught, and denied access to motherhood. This essay analyses four important works associated with this trend: Júlia & The Empty Lot (2018) and To Be a Mother (2021) by Clàudia Cedó, Conversations With My Uterus and Other Interlocutors (2018) by Núria Planes Llull, and Stigmas (2019) by Concha Milla. These plays respectively address the experience of perinatal loss, the desire of women with disabilities to become mothers, doubts concerning one’s maternal desire, and the consequences of infertility and assisted reproductive technology processes. The analysis is based on dramatic and video criticism, accompanied by a study of performance documentation and paratexts. This essay contends that the analysed plays shed light on the tension between hegemonic narratives around motherhood and the actual experiences of contemporary Catalan women in terms of access to motherhood, which can be fraught with social, political, or physiological obstacles, as well as denied to certain subjects who have historically been excluded from womanhood, such as women with disabilities. In so doing, the plays expand the available narratives for what we understand as motherhood while elaborating feminist responses to the lived experiences they bring to the stage.
{"title":"To be or not to be a mother: doubtful, fraught, and denied access to motherhood in contemporary Catalan theatre","authors":"Adriana Nicolau Jiménez","doi":"10.14198/fem.2023.41.13","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.14198/fem.2023.41.13","url":null,"abstract":"Like many other regions in Europe, Catalonia has seen significant changes in the demographics of motherhood over recent decades, with decreasing fertility rates and an increase in the average age of women at the birth of the first child. Together with increased social awareness of gender and identity issues such as gestational loss or the sexual and reproductive rights of people with disabilities, this changing landscape seems to have had a noteworthy impact on contemporary Catalan theatre. Indeed, throughout the long 2010s, a significant number of female-authored plays focused on motherhood premiered in Catalan venues, and a significant portion of these addressed doubtful, fraught, and denied access to motherhood. This essay analyses four important works associated with this trend: Júlia & The Empty Lot (2018) and To Be a Mother (2021) by Clàudia Cedó, Conversations With My Uterus and Other Interlocutors (2018) by Núria Planes Llull, and Stigmas (2019) by Concha Milla. These plays respectively address the experience of perinatal loss, the desire of women with disabilities to become mothers, doubts concerning one’s maternal desire, and the consequences of infertility and assisted reproductive technology processes. The analysis is based on dramatic and video criticism, accompanied by a study of performance documentation and paratexts. This essay contends that the analysed plays shed light on the tension between hegemonic narratives around motherhood and the actual experiences of contemporary Catalan women in terms of access to motherhood, which can be fraught with social, political, or physiological obstacles, as well as denied to certain subjects who have historically been excluded from womanhood, such as women with disabilities. In so doing, the plays expand the available narratives for what we understand as motherhood while elaborating feminist responses to the lived experiences they bring to the stage.","PeriodicalId":32557,"journal":{"name":"Feminismos","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-01-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45328072","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
The theoretical development of the concept of diaspora accounts for almost any transnational population that maintains strong emotional ties based on nostalgia and memory with their territories of origin, but also affects and ties with their territories of destination. These processes are generated through intrinsically diverse experiences that are constructed in-between both social realities. The emergence of digital technologies has provided these populations with a new scenario wherein the past and present homes are connected by immediate communication, which currently reduces distances, and uprootedness. However, few investigations have analyzed the frequent communication paradoxes that occur within these communities based on not only the need to be connected but also the failure to meet family expectations. Most studies have focused on the experience of mothers and the role they play in maintaining traditions linked to their places of origin, leaving behind the experience of daughters and their mutual relationship. This article addresses this gap while exploring the challenges that these contradictions present for the Sahrawi digital diaspora in Spain. Specifically, it investigates relationships between mothers and daughters and their impact on the social media practices of the latter. Through a social media ethnography that was developed between 2016 and 2018 together with Sahrawi refugees in Spain, this research examines how aspects such as the maintenance of family honor and the need to build one’s own life plan constantly clash in relationships between mothers and daughters with respect to cultural preservation, the emergence of new forms of belonging, emotional relations, and community expectations.
{"title":"“You have raised me between two worlds”: Mothers, daughters, and emotions in the Sahrawi digital diaspora in Spain","authors":"Silvia Almenara-Niebla","doi":"10.14198/fem.2023.41.09","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.14198/fem.2023.41.09","url":null,"abstract":"The theoretical development of the concept of diaspora accounts for almost any transnational population that maintains strong emotional ties based on nostalgia and memory with their territories of origin, but also affects and ties with their territories of destination. These processes are generated through intrinsically diverse experiences that are constructed in-between both social realities. The emergence of digital technologies has provided these populations with a new scenario wherein the past and present homes are connected by immediate communication, which currently reduces distances, and uprootedness. However, few investigations have analyzed the frequent communication paradoxes that occur within these communities based on not only the need to be connected but also the failure to meet family expectations. Most studies have focused on the experience of mothers and the role they play in maintaining traditions linked to their places of origin, leaving behind the experience of daughters and their mutual relationship. This article addresses this gap while exploring the challenges that these contradictions present for the Sahrawi digital diaspora in Spain. Specifically, it investigates relationships between mothers and daughters and their impact on the social media practices of the latter. Through a social media ethnography that was developed between 2016 and 2018 together with Sahrawi refugees in Spain, this research examines how aspects such as the maintenance of family honor and the need to build one’s own life plan constantly clash in relationships between mothers and daughters with respect to cultural preservation, the emergence of new forms of belonging, emotional relations, and community expectations.","PeriodicalId":32557,"journal":{"name":"Feminismos","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-01-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44388538","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Traditionally, we associate motherhood with the practice of caring for children. And that is correct, but we must be cautious because in care we find a wide range of habits that encompasses desires and needs that vary greatly according to social class, gender, age and time. In general, in the mentality of the 16th century, the mother not only played her motherhood role through upbringing, but sometimes it was more important to bequeath a lineage, a surname, goods or a house. It is on this point that this text is based in the spirit of recovering the agency of elite women, but also of the ones belonging to other social classes. On the one hand, as women who are promoters and patrons of a heritage that empowers them in the city (matronage) while allowing them to protect their descendants and perpetuate the lineage of which they consider themselves the guardians. On the other hand, women who are not of high lineage but who defend the house in which they live, even if it is not their property; because they have children and ask for shelter to be protected under a roof. Both cases can be interpreted as expressions of power, although at very different levels, because if in one case they are moved by the desire of projection and promotion of that mother as the matron of a lineage; in the other, being a mother and having children in charge can be a burden but also an argument in favor of defending the tenancy or occupation of a house. For this study we make use of archival documentation of the sixteenth century, but specifically from Granada, with a view to focusing on the various cases observed in the same city.
{"title":"Power and motherhood in the 16th century: Perpetuity and memory through architecture","authors":"María Elena Díez Jorge","doi":"10.14198/fem.2023.41.04","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.14198/fem.2023.41.04","url":null,"abstract":"Traditionally, we associate motherhood with the practice of caring for children. And that is correct, but we must be cautious because in care we find a wide range of habits that encompasses desires and needs that vary greatly according to social class, gender, age and time. In general, in the mentality of the 16th century, the mother not only played her motherhood role through upbringing, but sometimes it was more important to bequeath a lineage, a surname, goods or a house. It is on this point that this text is based in the spirit of recovering the agency of elite women, but also of the ones belonging to other social classes. On the one hand, as women who are promoters and patrons of a heritage that empowers them in the city (matronage) while allowing them to protect their descendants and perpetuate the lineage of which they consider themselves the guardians. On the other hand, women who are not of high lineage but who defend the house in which they live, even if it is not their property; because they have children and ask for shelter to be protected under a roof. Both cases can be interpreted as expressions of power, although at very different levels, because if in one case they are moved by the desire of projection and promotion of that mother as the matron of a lineage; in the other, being a mother and having children in charge can be a burden but also an argument in favor of defending the tenancy or occupation of a house. For this study we make use of archival documentation of the sixteenth century, but specifically from Granada, with a view to focusing on the various cases observed in the same city.","PeriodicalId":32557,"journal":{"name":"Feminismos","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-01-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42394362","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
This article proposes to explore the biographic accounts and everyday experiences of cisgender women who, for various reasons and biopsychosocial conditions, are not mothers. From a feminist focus and using a qualitative methodology, it looks at the complex nature of the experience for women who felt the desire to be mothers and started out on a quest for motherhood. As a result of the thematic analysis of their accounts, we find that some women have undergone miscarriages and repetition miscarriages, facing infertility problems (structural, relational and social) and medicalisation of their bodies using assisted reproduction technology (ART). It has been seen how biomedicine and reproductive biotechnology boost the search for biological (and medical) solutions to social problems related to structural infertility. Furthermore, the importance given to experiencing ‘grief for non-motherhood’, is emphasised, composed of different processes that are socially denied or disenfranchised —such as gestational grief, genetic grief or institutional grief— and performing small rituals to say goodbye. It is demonstrated that, following a process of acceptance of the non-motherhood and self-knowledge, the women in question redefine their identity in new projects. Finally, the relevance of mutual support groups (MSG) is demonstrated as a way of sharing frames of reference, forging empathy relationships and reciprocity networks. The conclusions highlight how the journey from ‘impossible motherhood’ to non-motherhood is a subjective process, involving reflection and a physical and emotional life lesson, that makes it possible to challenge, rethink and overthrow the hegemonic representations of motherhood generating new meanings and social practices bound to non-motherhood.
{"title":"Impossible motherhood: From the desire for motherhood to non-motherhood","authors":"Mercedes Bogino Larrambebere","doi":"10.14198/fem.2023.41.14","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.14198/fem.2023.41.14","url":null,"abstract":"This article proposes to explore the biographic accounts and everyday experiences of cisgender women who, for various reasons and biopsychosocial conditions, are not mothers. From a feminist focus and using a qualitative methodology, it looks at the complex nature of the experience for women who felt the desire to be mothers and started out on a quest for motherhood. As a result of the thematic analysis of their accounts, we find that some women have undergone miscarriages and repetition miscarriages, facing infertility problems (structural, relational and social) and medicalisation of their bodies using assisted reproduction technology (ART). It has been seen how biomedicine and reproductive biotechnology boost the search for biological (and medical) solutions to social problems related to structural infertility. Furthermore, the importance given to experiencing ‘grief for non-motherhood’, is emphasised, composed of different processes that are socially denied or disenfranchised —such as gestational grief, genetic grief or institutional grief— and performing small rituals to say goodbye. It is demonstrated that, following a process of acceptance of the non-motherhood and self-knowledge, the women in question redefine their identity in new projects. Finally, the relevance of mutual support groups (MSG) is demonstrated as a way of sharing frames of reference, forging empathy relationships and reciprocity networks. The conclusions highlight how the journey from ‘impossible motherhood’ to non-motherhood is a subjective process, involving reflection and a physical and emotional life lesson, that makes it possible to challenge, rethink and overthrow the hegemonic representations of motherhood generating new meanings and social practices bound to non-motherhood.","PeriodicalId":32557,"journal":{"name":"Feminismos","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-01-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47985652","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
This paper examines how women accessing social egg freezing (SEF), medical egg freezing (MEF), and egg sharing (ESH) imagine becoming a mother (normative motherhood) in contrast to how they become a mother (reproductive trajectory). It uses data collection from 43 semi-structured in-depth interviews with French women who have had their eggs cryopreserved in France and abroad, five of whom have had children. It was found that most of the women interviewed associate motherhood with heterosexual coupledom, the nuclear family, and a normalized desire for biogenetic motherhood. Nevertheless, ontological disruptions caused by infertility, singlehood, or illness introduce the possibility that they will be unable to have children as expected, which leads them to imagine (and consider) both medical and non-medical ways of having a child. Women’s narrations of alternative paths toward motherhood describe a fragmentation of motherhood into genetic, biological, and social components, which are combined and hierarchized in unexpected ways. I argue that, although alternative reproductive trajectories might modify the kinship ties between the parties involved, they do not necessarily defy normative motherhood. To my knowledge, this is the first empirical study conducted among French women undertaking egg freezing. It seeks to contribute to a growing corpus of empirical research that analyzes egg freezing and its links with motherhood. Second, it mobilizes an innovative approach by examining similarities between SEF, MEF, and ESH. Furthermore, it proposes that women who freeze their eggs for medical reasons or in exchange for an egg donation also inscribe their egg freezing procedure within a heteronormative, biogenetic ideal of motherhood, and a normalized desire for a nuclear family. Finally, it contributes to analyzing the decision-making processes of women who become a mother after egg freezing.
{"title":"Imagining motherhood and becoming a mother after egg freezing. An anthropological study in the French context","authors":"Yolinliztli Pérez-Hernández","doi":"10.14198/fem.2023.41.10","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.14198/fem.2023.41.10","url":null,"abstract":"This paper examines how women accessing social egg freezing (SEF), medical egg freezing (MEF), and egg sharing (ESH) imagine becoming a mother (normative motherhood) in contrast to how they become a mother (reproductive trajectory). It uses data collection from 43 semi-structured in-depth interviews with French women who have had their eggs cryopreserved in France and abroad, five of whom have had children. It was found that most of the women interviewed associate motherhood with heterosexual coupledom, the nuclear family, and a normalized desire for biogenetic motherhood. Nevertheless, ontological disruptions caused by infertility, singlehood, or illness introduce the possibility that they will be unable to have children as expected, which leads them to imagine (and consider) both medical and non-medical ways of having a child. Women’s narrations of alternative paths toward motherhood describe a fragmentation of motherhood into genetic, biological, and social components, which are combined and hierarchized in unexpected ways. I argue that, although alternative reproductive trajectories might modify the kinship ties between the parties involved, they do not necessarily defy normative motherhood. To my knowledge, this is the first empirical study conducted among French women undertaking egg freezing. It seeks to contribute to a growing corpus of empirical research that analyzes egg freezing and its links with motherhood. Second, it mobilizes an innovative approach by examining similarities between SEF, MEF, and ESH. Furthermore, it proposes that women who freeze their eggs for medical reasons or in exchange for an egg donation also inscribe their egg freezing procedure within a heteronormative, biogenetic ideal of motherhood, and a normalized desire for a nuclear family. Finally, it contributes to analyzing the decision-making processes of women who become a mother after egg freezing.","PeriodicalId":32557,"journal":{"name":"Feminismos","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-01-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"41934905","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
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