Governance of ‘Mothering’ and Motherhood Politics in a Traditional Society

Abstract

Becoming a mother is a biological fact whereas ‘mothering’ is largely a sociocultural product. Though some psychoanalytic theorists argue that mothers have an instinctual urge to ‘mother’, sociocultural normative principles largely govern mothering. Cultures around the world have different expectations of what motherhood should be in their culture. Historically too there are images of ‘good mother’ and ‘bad mother’ possessing opposite characteristics. Motherhood being romanticized and over glorified throughout ages, puts pressure on the mother of constantly striving towards being a perfect mother. In the psychoanalytic framework, mothers are seen as the ‘object’ of a baby's desire serving transformative function. Becoming a mother, thus, inescapably impose dissonance and tension between the subjective experiences of mothering and normative ideals of motherhood. As an experiential consequence, a mother may feel emotionally tormented with ambivalent reactions towards motherhood and the concept of mothering. In this context the present paper attempts to inquire, with help of psychoanalytic and sociological theories, how a patriarchal society governs motherhood to establish the motherhood politics and its consequential effects on the mothers.