Bittercon: Rocking the Cradle- Motherhood in Science Fiction and Fantasy

[attackfish]

Motherhood holds an enormous place in modern society. Most women become mothers at some point in their lives. Yet even as more and more women become prominent as both sci-fi fantasy writers or as fantasy and sci-fi protagonists, fewer and fewer mothers are showcased in modern sci-fi and fantasy.

Part of this comes undoubtedly from the traditional cultural devaluing of women’s roles (such as motherhood) in the western society from which a lot of modern fantasy springs. Also, until recently, women were not themselves common in fantasy, and in much modern fantasy, women still find themselves only in limited roles. One of those limited roles was as either love interest of the hero (including sometimes mother of his children, which would necessitate the male protagonist being a father) or the hero’s mother. In this role, motherhood made the woman into a symbol of positive domesticity, something the hero yearns to return to, or a stifling domesticity that the hero wishes to escape from. This older expression of both femininity and motherhood is losing ground, but as it does, the number of mothers in sci-fi and fantasy has begun to shrink.

As more and more women become the stars of fantasy novels, will more and more of them be mothers? Or interact with mothers? At the moment, it doesn’t seem like they are. There are notable and popular exceptions (Bella Swan in the Twilight novels, for example) that show that there may be a market for that type of narrative, however.

Part of the absence of motherhood, especially among the protagonists of sci-fi and fantasy stories might lie in the appeal of such novels as an escape from the everyday world. Many women experience an enormous about of pressure to become mothers, or to value children, and consciously or unconsciously wish to escape the cult of motherhood in their fiction. Part of it is that motherhood sucks up so much time and energy that writing a protagonist as a mother presents a real challenge.

Then there is the evil mother. Fantasy especially partly has its roots in European folk tales, many of them have the mother as a menacing character, one of the enemies that must be faced and overcome.

Also there is Young Adult and Children’s sci-fi and fantasy, where the absence of protective parents, especially mothers, is a whole nother issue with its own reasons and purposes.

The question is, do readers and writers want to see more of motherhood? Do readers and writers want to see a change in how motherhood is portrayed, or is the way things are done now the ideal situation?

Written for bittercon the online convention for those of us who can't make it to any other kind, on a topic stolen from a panel at the 2010 Worldcon.

Comments

[marycatelli]

Very few protagonists are fathers, either.

There's always the little question of: if you're off on this quest -- who's looking after the children?

[kgbooklog.livejournal.com]

Fantasy with mothers as protagonists:

Cherie Priest, Boneshaker
Jo Walton, Lifelode
Patricia Briggs, Raven's Shadow and Raven's Strike (whole family on a quest)
Tanya Huff, Sing the Four Quarters (pregnancy rather than motherhood, I haven't read the sequels)
Patricia Wrede and Caroline Stevermer, The Mislaid Magician (book three in the series)
Steven Erikson, Memories of Ice (book three in the series, but many of the books have a sub-theme exploring a certain familial relationship)

The question is, do readers and writers want to see more of motherhood? Do readers and writers want to see a change in how motherhood is portrayed, or is the way things are done now the ideal situation?

I agree that motherhood (and family in general) is considered boring and mundane and gets in the way of the exciting bits. (I wonder what percentage of female authors are mothers.) I'm not especially interested in reading about young children, but I would love to see more married couples as protagonists.

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

Ooh, ooh, pick me! Pick me! I'm writing a novel with a mother as a protagonist, and I've written a few short pieces with mothers as protagonists.

The mother in the novel has some problems dealing with the mundane world and isn't the most responsible person you could meet, but her kids mainly like her and she mainly likes them.

[beboots.livejournal.com]

The only fantasy story (and now movie, I suppose) that I've read recently that involved an actual mother (and husband, and pregnancy, and children) as a main character was "The Time Traveller's Wife". The book, I think, portrayed miscarriage, pregnancy, the troubles of an absent husband, etc., in a very realistic way. And at lease women's issues weren't ignored in that one! ;)

But I agree with you in many respects; there are very few mother protagonists in fantasy. I personally would love to read more.

[zanzjan.livejournal.com]

As a parent, I can definitely say being a mother makes it an awful lot harder to have any sort of interesting adventures -- at least of the sort that don't involve poop. Of course, that's in the context of our (my) current culture, which isn't really very supportive of parents, much less single ones.

Also, a big portion of fandom is, at best, ambivalent towards the idea and presence of children, and parts of it downright hostile. I've noticed the anti-child attitude creeping into SF/F with differing degrees of subtlety. (I read a book recently where the author dedicated large portions of the book to trying to show us how unlovable & horrible children are, for no reason in any way relevant to the plot, and sufficiently implausible/irrational for her main character that I as a reader couldn't interpret it in any other way than as a direct insertion of the author's personal pet peeve into the narrative. It was intrusive and clumsy enough that it didn't matter whether or not it offended me -- I won't be buying any more of that author's books again.)

In my limited experience, the more writing- and literature-oriented the convention, the less likely it is to have any sort of kid's programming (Readercon perhaps epitomizes this) with the exception of Wiscon -- and I can't imagine it's a coincidence that Wiscon is the standout AND the feminist SF con.

In addition to all the very good points you raise above, it seems to me that a lot of writers who aren't actively one side or the other of the "children are our future" versus "parasitic crotch-fruit" argument can't help but internalize some of the prevailing atmosphere of children not really having a place in SF/F literature or real-life community except as either a complication or an annoyance and, coupled with character-ageism (not a lot of middle-aged women protagonists running around, mothers or no) if you're still determined to have a mother as a main character you either end up with what must seem like an unnecessary complication to your plot, or you have to resort to a cliched "tragic past", or you have to have your character walk away from their children, which no matter how good the motive is something the vast majority of readers will hold against your character.

I *would* like to see more SF/F with radically different social structures and roles, not out of a specific desire to see more mom-characters (though certainly it'd be nice) but more because this is one of the real strengths of SF/F, to reimagine fundamental ways in which we could be different, and how that changes everything else.

[amyraine.livejournal.com]

Thank you for linking me to this essay!

Since you mentioned good ol' Bella, I note that while she became a mother, her own mother was portrayed very unflatteringly, or so I hear. I haven't read the books so my knowledge of them is all second-hand.

I want to see more mothers as protagonists, but I'd be happy having more books/shows/films where the protagonists have strong mothers. They exist, but I always want more.