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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?
no subject
Date: 2003-09-17 02:24 pm (UTC)My memory is fuzzy, but wasn't Ripley suspended for many years, and in fact her own child had grown up or died or something? So she grasps Newt fiercely, and will kill anything that will harm that child. She fights men and monsters and risks her own life all in an effort to save 'the child'.
The Alien made a brief truce with Ripley so long as the flamethrower was in evidence, a sign of intelligence - you don't harm my children, I will let you run (until far enough way that alien children are no longer threatened, I imagine), but Ripley broke the truce in order to distract the enemy.
Xena bore a child and hid it away from her enemies, Gabrielle bore the child of an evil god, which evil child killed Xena's son. Gabrielle loved that child despite its heritage, wanted so badly to raise her child. She sent it away rather than kill it, and then later had to kill it anyway, after seeing yet another damned generation spring to life and death in the span of a few days.
Xena's second child was a target on its own account, and she dealt with foes continually until she fell in battle, then had to reunite with Eve as a bitter, twisted adult.
Xena:WP got really campy after a while plotwise, but her devotion to her children was well-portrayed by LL, and so was Gabrielle's by RO'C. The children weren't the be-all and end-all of the series, and Xena and Gabrielle both retained their warrior abilities and brains.
Scully's maternal instinct never really became an issue until the ability to conceive was taken from her. After that, her character became at times almost a cipher - barren=unfulfilled. Agh, that's just an impression, no recall of any specific episodes to back it up.
Aeryn Sun - we're not told of any interest in offspring, nothing, nada, until Prayer. She was interested in her own mother, and she offered the vial in LATP to John because children were important to him, and it was a sign of her committment to trying to make a future together.
That thing in Prayer was totally out of left field.
John's the family guy, wants the whole ball of wax: wife, kids, dog, house. He's been given the 'feminine' role, if you will, talking about feelings, trying to communicate, wanting to take care of Aeryn, wanting to be needed.
Buffy can kill herself to save her sister, but can she take care of a child? That's a far harder job, long-term, years of one's life devoted to it. Robin's mother is the only Slayer mother we've seen, and her life was short and ended violently, leaving him an orphan. She did raise him for several years and would have continued, I imagine, had she survived.
Not every woman is meant to reproduce. Nature impels, but will overcomes nature, and women all through history and before learned how to prevent conception or rid themselves of unwanted pregnancies. It's a part of societal life, that children can exist within cultural boundaries, but outside of those lines are forbidden and unwelcome signs of deviance.
In most television shows, the button to push for audience reaction is warm, fuzzy Mommy, because that's the time-honored image. When you have a strong female character with no more interest in becoming Mommy than someone like Mulder in becoming Daddy, then that shakes the paradigm. It's not a natural state, and cannot continue without some eventual concession to the expected dynamic: strong female must fall in love and become Woman, and that must lead inevitable to Woman=Mommy=all is right with the world.
no subject
Date: 2003-09-17 03:30 pm (UTC)And I didn't particularly think the scene in Prayer came out of left field, maybe left of center but not out of the blue. Talyn was her first exposure to children as more than a concept, and he was an anomaly who already had a mother. I think the baby for her was still a concept. She wanted it for it's connection to John, but also because she would never have had a child as a Peacekeeper, and in Prayer it became about both those things. Aeryn's always tried to protect the defenseless, and in this case, it's her child, and defenseless and it's something that ties her to John, however way co-dependent that is, it's still true. She also has exhibited a sort of sentimentality for family, which John uses against her in GEM.
I guess I like the idea of someone embodying several things - being strong, also loving someone, loving a child because those things aren't exclusive, but I don't know if there's room for that in genre where everyone else's life has to be more important.