Motherhood and speculative fiction

[dickens]

I've had a couple posts simmering since Wiscon, but haven't had the time to sit down and write it. (The contract is over now, so woo!) Here's #1. (Interestingly, the other post comes from the same panel.)


A panel I slipped into toward the end was talking about depictions of women in media. Based on the characters being discussed, I made a comment that you see young women and post-menopausal women in most stories, but you don't seem to see mothers. (I've mentioned this before...) Are mothers so difficult to portray?

One of the panelists shot me down with "Please, I'm so tired of female characters being limited by their parenting choices." I was too shocked by her response to speak.

[Insert 6 weeks of stewing here.]

Hah! What choices? How many childless heroines do you see considering the possibility of motherhood (except in an occasional shout-out to birth control)? How many heroines have children who weren't fathered by an alien/fairy/demon/god AND/OR aren't the Chosen boy One?

Let's take the example that came up both in my previous post and in the panel.

Sarah Connor. Yes, she becomes kick-ass in T2. But the point of her character is that she is the mother of the Chosen One, who is conceived after Sarah has a one-night-stand with a soldier sent back in time, by her son, to rescue her. Um.

I won't start on the dead-mother and mothers-conveniently-out-of-the-way tropes in YA fiction (and MOST chosen one stories, what's up with that? Being a poor motherless babe makes you studly?). Okay, I started, but I'm stopping now.

Thank goodness for Nanny Ogg.

Comments

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

"I'm so tired of female characters being limited by their parenting choices...that I will limit their parenting choices for them! Hooray!"

Orrrrrr maybe not.

[kalmn.livejournal.com]

having a kid is one of those things where it's still the revolver on the mantel-- if it's there, it has to be part of the plot. a lot of times, disability in a book is the same way.

i'd like to see mothers in books where they are mothers, but the part where they are mothers is not the point, you know? i am all full of oh sainted motherhood stories. i would like to see some "she saves the world and then figures out which kindergarten she's sending the kids to" stories.

[amblypygid.livejournal.com]

I wouldn't mind reading more stories about mothers, and as you say, kalmn, stories about mothers where the focus is not on their motherhood.

We talked about this in a panel I was at at Wiscon too. A lot of people thought that part of the issue was that when you become a mother your priorities change. For instance, most women no longer want to do dangerous things or take long trips because (1) you don't really want to get yourself killed and leave your kids without a mother, and (2) who is going to take care of the kids while you're on your epic quest? Are you going to try to bring them along? So it's not clear that the things many fantasy and science fiction books are about work as well with characters who are mothers. You could, of course, write new types of stories, this is not easy.

I know that my perspective on fantasy and science fiction stories has changed a lot as I've aged and become a parent. I used to love all those coming of age stories. Now I put myself in the parent's role, and the story feels very different. I'm not so interested in the coming of age stories anymore. In fact, I read a lot more biographies and essays rather than sf these days, because I think a lot of sf is written for people in the early part of their lives, when they're taking those steps to figure out who they are and what they want.