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itsallovernowWe coopted someone's version of OS X, which means that the design department and I can't have MS Word on at the same time. Normally, this is not a problem, but I need to edit something on another computer and it's pissing me off that I can't access it, so, instead, I'm gonna talk about motherhood. Not from personal experience, obviously, but as a concept in genre media - not all genre media, just that which comes to my mind first, but other examples, supporting, contradicting, etc are more than welcome.
I read a post not too long ago about the lack of mothers represented in fiction, and it got me to thinking about how true that is. Mom's are often either the bad guy, or a plot device, or ignored completely, yet they have a huge impact on our lives. I think it's hard to portray them as a person, as opposed to just that concept of motherhood because we have trouble making that distinction ourselves until we reach a certain age.
Fathers are far more prominent - the father/son struggles and bonds, the father/daughter protectiveness.
Certain genre works approach the concept - Mrs. Weasley is a strong maternal figure, and her own character has been developed within the Harry Potter universe in the last two books. Buffy was grounded to this world in part because of her mother, who did develop some personality traits over the years, and Scully's mother was very much a force in her life. I suppose Mulder's mother was as well, her ambiguous choices and loyalties became important in later seasons. And while we only see John Crichton's mother in two episodes, we know that those incidents, her life and her death, shaped his character. He doesn't talk much about her, but he carries those memories with him.
Of course, there's Sydney Bristow and Aeryn Sun - both with mothers who have mixed intentions towards their offspring, whose absence played a far larger role than their presence did until later in the characters' lives.
But in all those shows, the father/ child dynamic seems to loom larger, the issues more pivotal and prescient.
On the other hand, genre characters becoming mothers is something else entirely. It's hard to pull this off, for a variety of reasons. Putting a child in mortal danger is a much different thing than doing this to an adult. It provokes an immediate response in the viewer, and if it's used as a cheap plot device, it's incredibly off putting. And these are characters whose lives are constantly in danger, it's part of what defines the genre (at least on TV), the stakes are higher. These are people who have to save the world from alien invasions and government conspiracies, from being sucked into hell, from becoming a playground for other aliens bent on destruction, I'm not sure what Sydney is saving the world from, but I'm sure it's something big:)
So that leaves us with a dilemna. If you add children into the mix, the stakes change. Yes, saving the world is the most important thing, but do you follow through on that if it means risking your child. My own mother would do anything for me. I'm a grown woman, and I still know this to be true. I'm pretty sure that's a universal constant, genre or not. So how do you incorporate that into a character driven by her strengths and ability to stop harm from coming to others if her priority is always going to be her own child?
I'm not sure of the answer. We see Scully give up her child to protect him, which may be the solution, but it doesn't allow us to see these characters in a maternal role. Talyn dies, and I guess in this I'm looking at the effect of that on Aeryn, but perhaps I should be looking at the effect on Moya. She's devastated, but her son has never been terribly accessible or understandable, and it's a better fate for him than being enslaved or destroyed by the Peacekeepers, and so she gives consent to his choice. And Aeryn accepts the decision because Talyn is no longer a child, and she knows his other choices, and she understands sacrifice.
I do think, had we seen John and Aeryn and there offspring, that the writer's could have done great things with the weight of the threat hanging over this child.![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
searose had many excellent points about this the other day, and I'll just direct you there, but that's one of the attractions for me about that storyline. This is a fiercely protective character who is already torn between duties and loyalties and also desperately wants the stability and family that she's had tastes of. Aeryn is rarely about wants, but when she pursues them, she does so with reckless abandon because she's only learning how. Putting a child into the works would show her own conflicts and struggles increase tenfold, and I would have liked to see that. I've had that challenge writing Blue Eyes, questioning where her role as mother gets overrun by her role as leader and vice versa. How distant can she be, and still be attached to her child, how close can she be to Anix, and still maintain a perspective on the larger situation?
In addition, often we don't think of maternal characteristics as being prominent in many strong female characters. For me, Scully longing for children was a shock because we'd only seen brief glimpses of her having any interest in children in more than a husband, house, dog and two kids concept kind of way. I know the episodes that focused on it, but when we got to Emily, it was sudden. Oh by the way, she can't have babies. On the other hand, she had strong family, access to nieces and nephews.
Aeryn is different because the situation is different. She wasn't raised to take an interest in children, and probably until Talyn, never much considered them. She had no concept of parental love and support. But John did, and has, which gives them as good a chance as anyone to try and raise their child. But the kid will be deeply screwed up, I guaruntee it.
Can we look down the line and see Buffy having children? She's acted as a mother to Dawn, so maybe yes. But having an infant is far different from having a teenage girl - even if she's not really a girl. Dawn did already have parental input and support, and while Buffy is no longer holding the fate of the world in her hands, she's still always going to be a center of violence and chaos unless she renounces her role completely. And Sydney, can we even imagine her wanting children when her own parents are so fundamentally destructive to her?
So what would it take? And could it be done? Could we see our strong female characters with their children, how would it change them, and their reaction to the stakes they face?
I read a post not too long ago about the lack of mothers represented in fiction, and it got me to thinking about how true that is. Mom's are often either the bad guy, or a plot device, or ignored completely, yet they have a huge impact on our lives. I think it's hard to portray them as a person, as opposed to just that concept of motherhood because we have trouble making that distinction ourselves until we reach a certain age.
Fathers are far more prominent - the father/son struggles and bonds, the father/daughter protectiveness.
Certain genre works approach the concept - Mrs. Weasley is a strong maternal figure, and her own character has been developed within the Harry Potter universe in the last two books. Buffy was grounded to this world in part because of her mother, who did develop some personality traits over the years, and Scully's mother was very much a force in her life. I suppose Mulder's mother was as well, her ambiguous choices and loyalties became important in later seasons. And while we only see John Crichton's mother in two episodes, we know that those incidents, her life and her death, shaped his character. He doesn't talk much about her, but he carries those memories with him.
Of course, there's Sydney Bristow and Aeryn Sun - both with mothers who have mixed intentions towards their offspring, whose absence played a far larger role than their presence did until later in the characters' lives.
But in all those shows, the father/ child dynamic seems to loom larger, the issues more pivotal and prescient.
On the other hand, genre characters becoming mothers is something else entirely. It's hard to pull this off, for a variety of reasons. Putting a child in mortal danger is a much different thing than doing this to an adult. It provokes an immediate response in the viewer, and if it's used as a cheap plot device, it's incredibly off putting. And these are characters whose lives are constantly in danger, it's part of what defines the genre (at least on TV), the stakes are higher. These are people who have to save the world from alien invasions and government conspiracies, from being sucked into hell, from becoming a playground for other aliens bent on destruction, I'm not sure what Sydney is saving the world from, but I'm sure it's something big:)
So that leaves us with a dilemna. If you add children into the mix, the stakes change. Yes, saving the world is the most important thing, but do you follow through on that if it means risking your child. My own mother would do anything for me. I'm a grown woman, and I still know this to be true. I'm pretty sure that's a universal constant, genre or not. So how do you incorporate that into a character driven by her strengths and ability to stop harm from coming to others if her priority is always going to be her own child?
I'm not sure of the answer. We see Scully give up her child to protect him, which may be the solution, but it doesn't allow us to see these characters in a maternal role. Talyn dies, and I guess in this I'm looking at the effect of that on Aeryn, but perhaps I should be looking at the effect on Moya. She's devastated, but her son has never been terribly accessible or understandable, and it's a better fate for him than being enslaved or destroyed by the Peacekeepers, and so she gives consent to his choice. And Aeryn accepts the decision because Talyn is no longer a child, and she knows his other choices, and she understands sacrifice.
I do think, had we seen John and Aeryn and there offspring, that the writer's could have done great things with the weight of the threat hanging over this child.
searose had many excellent points about this the other day, and I'll just direct you there, but that's one of the attractions for me about that storyline. This is a fiercely protective character who is already torn between duties and loyalties and also desperately wants the stability and family that she's had tastes of. Aeryn is rarely about wants, but when she pursues them, she does so with reckless abandon because she's only learning how. Putting a child into the works would show her own conflicts and struggles increase tenfold, and I would have liked to see that. I've had that challenge writing Blue Eyes, questioning where her role as mother gets overrun by her role as leader and vice versa. How distant can she be, and still be attached to her child, how close can she be to Anix, and still maintain a perspective on the larger situation?In addition, often we don't think of maternal characteristics as being prominent in many strong female characters. For me, Scully longing for children was a shock because we'd only seen brief glimpses of her having any interest in children in more than a husband, house, dog and two kids concept kind of way. I know the episodes that focused on it, but when we got to Emily, it was sudden. Oh by the way, she can't have babies. On the other hand, she had strong family, access to nieces and nephews.
Aeryn is different because the situation is different. She wasn't raised to take an interest in children, and probably until Talyn, never much considered them. She had no concept of parental love and support. But John did, and has, which gives them as good a chance as anyone to try and raise their child. But the kid will be deeply screwed up, I guaruntee it.
Can we look down the line and see Buffy having children? She's acted as a mother to Dawn, so maybe yes. But having an infant is far different from having a teenage girl - even if she's not really a girl. Dawn did already have parental input and support, and while Buffy is no longer holding the fate of the world in her hands, she's still always going to be a center of violence and chaos unless she renounces her role completely. And Sydney, can we even imagine her wanting children when her own parents are so fundamentally destructive to her?
So what would it take? And could it be done? Could we see our strong female characters with their children, how would it change them, and their reaction to the stakes they face?
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Long-ass comment warning...
Date: 2003-09-17 01:56 pm (UTC)This is the dilemma of the working parent writ large--how do you balance the needs of the child with the demands of the world outside? The established road in genre has been to neuter the woman in question, making her stereotypically hyper "feminine", overly emotional and overwrought, her existence centered around the child.
Your standard Scully. *sigh*
But I think even the people who perpetrate these assassinations of character are uncomfortable with doing so--hence the child becomes The Child, and it's welfare gains extra importance. He's the key, or the one, or everyone and his brother wants to harm him.
It rationalizes the narrowing of the woman's character (she hasn't gone soft, she's just fighting a different fight!), but it also has the converse effect of downplaying the dramatic potential inherent in *actual* childrearing (these babies are always so well-behaved!) and making it even more obvious that the woman has been shifted totally out of character.
This SOP backfires because it misses the point. The point is that a strong person becomes even stronger when they have people who are depending on them. Because they have to. The point is that the dilemma between the needs of the child and the demands of the world cannot be resolved, it can only be dealt with by constant negotiation. Because both cannot be satisfied.
Yes, I think it can be done, but it requires that we re-think some of our most cherished illusions about motherhood.
Re: Long-ass comment warning...
Date: 2003-09-17 02:11 pm (UTC)Exactly. That was my problem with the kid for Scully storyline. The writers didn't handle her reactions well, partially I think, because she was embodied with all of the masculine characteristics of logic and science and reasoning and then the writer's didn't know how to also make her maternal without being absurd. It's why she was their greatest character and their greatest failure, and why (for me) other women on the show were unappealing caricatures more than strong characters.
And really, no infant or child behaves that well. Kids are noisy and messy and difficult and fascinating, and exasperating and that should be part of the interaction parents have with them. (I hate simpering precocious children as much as I hate an overabundance of female tears:)
I've always like the thought of John and Aeryn's offspring being a terminally pissed off teenager, male or female. CAn you imagine being 13 and having your parents be responsible for mass destruction? How do you reconcile their actions with the fact that they're your folks?