Motherhood In The Media

To see further how motherhood is portrayed in the media, it is important to note where it started and what kind of roles mothers take on in certain media. For instance, when television first came out it was apparent that the mother’s role was to be portrayed as always positive and well-kept to give viewers a sense that that was what motherhood was supposed to look like, nothing less. However, as time passed, this form of portrayal was not as useful in terms of entertainment and motherhood began to be portrayed in a difficult light. When TV producers recognized this lack of entertainment from their audience, they began to show the negative or more concealed aspect of motherhood to their viewers. Themes such as mother blame, motherhood

mandate and mothering styles became more prominent. In particular, the movie We Need to Talk about Kevin, is a film about a mother, her troubled son and family that shows all of these themes and more, in a way that expresses what kind of pressure a mother is under during all periods of motherhood. The movie is depicted from the mother’s point of view while she conceives, births and raises her troubled boy named Kevin. Throughout the plot, she is pressed with dealing with the emotional, physical and mental turmoil that her and her family goes through for the movie to ultimately end with Kevin becoming a serial-mass murder and slaying his father and younger sister along the way.
The film begins with the mother, Eva, having sex with a stranger in hopes to fill a void she has in society.

This stranger then turns into her husband out of wedlock and they have their first baby. Wedlock is a concept where social pressure to have a child the traditional way and get a man that will be there to provide for the family influences the mother into marriage. This is exactly what happened with Eva as she quickly married this man before having his baby, however the marriage only lasted for a short while. In fact, 90% of all couples who have a child and then marry will be divorced in 6 years or less. (Unplanned Pregnancy and Marriage) Likewise, there seemed to be a thought in society that further influenced Eva into marriage; only married women can be good mothers who raise successful children. This theme is reoccurring throughout the movie as Eva tries to cope with her new life and the problems that she runs into with Kevin. It is likely that Eva felt the pressure of the motherhood mandate placed on females in society. This can be seen also in terms of the relationship that Eva had with her mother. During the movie she calls her mother and her tone and message depicts that they do not, and never did, have a good relationship. She ends the call early in annoyance when her mother says, “you’re just like me.” This can explain why she would want to fulfill the motherhood mandate and prove to herself that she is not anything like her

mother.
While raising Kevin, she took on every aspect of the mothering alone because the father was rarely around due to his designated role of the bread winner. Eva hoped to show Kevin that he was loved and nurture him into a good person, however, they did not seem to have a bond. During flashbacks shown throughout the film, it is clear that throughout Eva’s pregnancy she felt lost and did not feel a connection to her pregnant body or to the child inside of it. In one scene she is at a pregnant mother’s group meeting and feels like an outsider since she cannot connect to her pregnancy or any of the mothers around her. She leaves the meeting in spite and tries to avoid looking at herself in the mirror from then on. This further indicates that Eva did not get pregnant for the right reasons and instead was trying to fill a void by following the status-quo.