Beauvoir Motherhood

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Recommended: Essays on Simone de Beauvoir

One principle to the feminist theory that is often looked over is the perception that gender is the determining factor in the quality of motherhood. The role of a mother cannot be justified solely based upon gender, but rather the actions taken by those who experience parenthood. While, feminist theorists have looked at the role of mothers, the perception of theorists such as Simone De Beauvoir are ones in which need to be opposed due to their false pretenses. The focus in disputing the claims by Beauvoir is to exemplify the difference in the choice of motherhood and forced motherhood, depicting the discrepancy in raising children. These not only create a negative pretense of determining the skillset of a mother, but based on these beliefs …show more content…

The story of Amanda Berry and her daughter Joyce are the prime example of two individuals who survived the tragedy in Ohio under Ariel Castro. “I used to worry that if I had the baby it would remind me of him for the rest of my life. But I don’t anymore. This is my baby.(115)” This is a complex scenario of which a woman isn’t given the choice, rather forced to have a baby, and is fearful of the fate of her child and the impact she will have on her life. With this as evidence there is a direct contrary against the flawed logic of Simone De Beauvoir in the idea that forced motherhood leads to “miserable children in the world. Motherhood is a complex narrative and cannot be defined in simple terms as that of Simone De Beauvoir’s, The Second Sex, which aims to alienate the role of motherhood to being determined by the father and a woman’s connection to the father. There is another example in the case study of Odeth Kantengwa, who observed the effects of women “deciding to carry out motherhood responsibilities despite having been raped and impregnated by their rapists. (24)” This case study implied the difference of maternal realities between women of choice and women who were in forced in one way or another. While, the impact motherhood has on rape victims can be overall healing, this is another area to look at in which the mothering instinct can be stronger in women who view their children as a beacon of

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