RethinkingtheMaternal_ElizabethRoberti

"Rethinking the Maternal" 

"women's desire to find fulfillment in motherhood has been historically strong in part because women have few other sources of power in a society that devalues them."

I thought this was really interesting because if you think about it, being a mother and the ability to have actual life growing inside of you is one of the most amazing things in the world.  Men can't do this and it's something that sets us apart, a way we can be free and feel liberated.  Of course in a world where women are allowed to do so little and one in which they have never been seen as equal to men they would take the one thing they can do best and feel passionate for such a gift.  It's so powerful to choose to get pregnant and raise a child in the best way you know how.  It must make a woman feel so strong to have complete control of that aspect.

"I am aware of the dangers of idealizing and mystifying a certain biological female experience and of reviving an identification between femininity and maternity which certainly has not served the interests of women." 

I took this to mean that identifying women as people who's sole purpose on the planet is to reproduce.  This in my opinion takes away that freedom that having such an ability gives us and in turn makes it almost an unfulfilling process to give birth and have a child because now instead of a liberating experience it's something that we have to do.  Putting careers on hold, not writing if that's something a woman wants to do, etc.because it is seen to society that a woman was born to get married and have children and that is all.  This also puts a strain on women who want to do both, have a career and be a mother or women who simply just want to be a mother and nothing else.  It is said to be dangerous because the whole idea of women being equal is that they are free to choose and in being forced to solely have a career or being forced to solely be a mother is taking away that freedom.