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attackfishMotherhood 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?
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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.
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.
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no subject
Date: 2010-09-05 02:59 am (UTC)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.
creeping?
Date: 2010-09-05 04:37 am (UTC)Though, OTOH, they can be an unnecessary complication. Many heroes lack parents and siblings for the same reason.
Re: creeping?
Date: 2010-09-05 05:33 am (UTC)You do occasionally run into stories where lack of children is a problem because the race is dying out, but it's almost always framed in a "we only need them around because that's the only way to get more adults" way, rather than any sort of actual love/fondness of children for who and what they are themselves.
Now I am feeling motivated to write a story full of people with kids underfoot, just because.
Re: creeping?
Date: 2010-09-06 12:36 am (UTC)Go for it!
Re: creeping?
Date: 2010-09-06 12:59 am (UTC)Re: creeping?
Date: 2010-09-06 01:01 am (UTC)Re: creeping?
Date: 2010-09-06 01:33 am (UTC)Now me, I love SF, even when it's very silly, even sometimes when it's very serious. But I didn't feel like I could call myself an SF writer until, y'know, I could tick that "Margaret Atwood would consider my work SF" box on my internal mental success checklist. So I'm writing a story with talking squids in outer space, and just in case that's still close to an ambiguous line, I'm throwing in some space ninjas for good measure. It's a world of fun to write. (-:
Re: creeping?
Date: 2010-09-06 01:44 am (UTC)I have a deep love for space opera. So what if it has nothing to do with real science? It's all imagination really, and I'd rather see some epic adventure and anthropological experimentation than technobabble anyway.
Re: creeping?
Date: 2010-09-06 12:29 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-09-06 01:08 am (UTC)I hang out in YA land mostly, where there isn't as much of that (because if you want to write for children and teens, you probably like them at least a little, even if plenty of teens are willing to believe anyone before puberty is an evil hellspawn) but I have noticed a strange tendency to have a character have a kid, and then his/her life is over as far as the story's concerned, and if there's a sequel, it's about said kid. Teen parentage does not happen in YA Fantasy and Sci-Fi.
Um, ick, Author Tracts.
I've been to one convention, twice, Anime Exbo, which used to be a big treat, because I would spend all week for two weeks beforehand getting a yearly battery of tests and it involved lots of shots (fifty or more a day) and lots of feeling really sick, and since we had to be in southern CA anyway for that, my parents let me drag them to that. So I have no real Con experience, but from what I've read and the complaints I've heard, the more elitist feeling the convention is, the less willing it is to accommodate disability and I haven't been paying as good attention, but probably the more likely it is to have other skeevy privileged stuff show up. And the more writing and literature oriented the con is, the more elitist it tends to be, which as a huge written fantasy freak, breaks my heart.
In Fantasy, especially with as common as inherited feudal structures still are, you would think children would be much more important given the sort of life or death political roles they played, especially for women. Jennifer Roberson, who calls the sort of genre she writes "dynastic fantasy" (and has her own problems, but don't they all) has the intermarriage and production of children play a huge role in her novels, and for an obsessive amateur historian like me, it was a breath of fresh air to read her (decades old) novels. it just made more sense.
Or we could do the cheep storytelling trick we've been using for male characters for years and "refrigerate" said child, and possibly a husband too (kill them off) to send the heroine on her adventure. Or kidnap the child, or endanger it some other way, or make the child the reason for the adventure. For example: young, mildy royal girl in a feudal world has a child, and there is general unrest in the country. Seeing she now has a potential heir, rebellious nobles want to set her up on the throne! or we could go the Terminator route and have a mother protect her prophesied child, or... Of course that presupposes feudalism as the only appropriate fantasy governmental structure, and no, but there are ways!
I agree. The current similarity a lot of modern worlds have to each other, reflecting back the status quo is not the sort of spec fic I signed up to read.
no subject
Date: 2010-09-06 01:44 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-09-06 01:54 am (UTC)Oddly enough, I'm not a mother. In fact, I'm unable to have children because of my illness. I can conceive, but attempting to carry a child to term would almost certainly kill me pretty quickly, plus my genes are crap. Actually, since short term birth control for different reasons are all unfeasible, I'm arranging for my own sterilization, which was why I remember that part of Fire so clearly. I have a pack of young cousins and nephews and I grew up with children all around and want children of my own, and when I came home from the preliminary appointment, I ended up breaking down while driving home. I found out when I was eleven that I would not be able to bear my own, but going through the process of getting my tubes tied really brings it home. Eventually I hope to adopt, after I've gotten my law career up and running.
no subject
Date: 2010-09-06 03:29 am (UTC)All that aside, I'd have considered adoption -- and have days when I think I may still -- in a heartbeat if I wasn't a "bad candidate" by sole reason of being a single parent, and I have no doubt that I'd love any adopted child just as fully as any I popped out on my own. And, as has been said before, pregnancy can be kinda miserable. I was the labor coach for the birth of two of my friends' kids, and I gotta say the miracle of birth is a heck of a lot cooler as a bystander (for one thing, you're much less distracted) and I highly recommend taking any opportunities friends may offer to be involved.
no subject
Date: 2010-09-06 04:09 am (UTC)Wow. The closest I've ever been to any birth other than my own was the time the dog my grandmother was fostering had puppies. It was a very unusual experience for all concerned, because we're pretty fanatically spay/neuter. I'm kind of terrified I'd do what my dad did when he was at births and go white as a sheet and then have to convince the docs (or midwives, or EMTs) I don't need to be hospitalized.
We were actually having a terrible time trying to find a non-Christian adoption agency for when the time comes, being as I'm a bisexual Jew, and they likely wouldn't have anything to do with me, when a secular lesbian woman sets up right down the street from my mom's work. Obviously it's fate.