mothers
Mothers and daughters have been written about, criticized, publicized, condemned, and praised for a long time. As more and more material becomes available on mother-daughter relationships, it becomes apparent that being a mother and being a daughter means different things to different people depending on race, economics, social status and blood type. This paper will explore the meaning of being a mother and being a daughter by combining all of these independent variables. A definition of motherhood and daughterhood will be clearer, however, as experience will tell us, not everyone can be categorized, or even explained.In "Choosing Consciousness", Elizabeth Minnich describes mothers as: ".The people who take day-by-day care of children, the ones whose lives are intricately involved with their children, the ones who keep the children safe, who wrestle with their souls and fight with them and love them and try to heal them and give up on them and give in to them" (Minnich, 195). In her opinion, as well as many other authors we have read, a mother does not need to be blood related. She only needs to care for her child, be there for her child, and love her child. She is the dominant woman force in her child's life, in
It is not until the end of the story that Annie realizes that her mother was only acting on what her conception of motherhood embraced; once a daughter reached a certain age, she was to start her own life, evolving into her own identity. But African and African-American communities have also recognized that vesting one person with full responsibility for mothering a child may not be wise if possible" (Collins, 47). In a world that is so diverse and in a country that should be not racist, we are manifesting racism by not acknowledging the diversified mother/daughter relationship. In "Annie John", by Jamaica Kincaid, Annie is stunned when her mother suddenly turns her cheek on her in order to let her go and become a "lady". Walters discusses the effects that the media has on influencing our opinions of mothers and daughters. There is little to no research and images of the black mother-daughter relationship or any other race for that matter. As Collins put it, "Adhering to these standards brings the danger of the lowered self-esteem of internalized oppression, one that, if passed on from mother to daughter, provides a powerful mechanism for controlling African-American Communities" (Collins, 45). being a stepmother means loving the children more than our society expects. This idea is reflected in other cultures as well. The relationship that a daughter has with her mother should be one of the most formative ones of her life, and she should embrace the experience without the pressure to run away from it. "We (white women) become complicit in the intersections of racism/sexism by not challenging the treatment of black mothers and by replacing purified images of white ones (nurturing, caring, empowering, ethical, etc. fluencing, teaching and setting an example for her child. We need to explore those things that were missing from our mothers and practice those things on our daughters. Our "eurocentric" perspectives on black mothers have debilitated society from seeing what motherhood really is in African-American communities.
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