Abstract
This essay is a response to Maternal Desire by Daphne de Marneffe (2004) as well as a meditation on how mothers wish to be seen. A mother is often looked at—by the infant, by others, by unseen others. The contemplation of a mother and her baby has an unmistakable atmosphere and generates in the viewer a perpetual stream of associations and complex emotions, including exclusion. This essay examines the power of the mother-infant visual icon as it contradicts the mother's feelings of vulnerability; “Hot Moms”; the origin of the phenomenon known as the Mommy Wars; Simone de Beauvoir's writing on motherhood; and the current, putative conflict between feminism and stay-at-home mothers.
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