Blog Post #3

After reading through the maternal section of our book, and also Kingslover's "A letter to my daughter at 13" I found a common theme and similarity between women and motherhood, no matter their differences in culture, ethnicity, or class.  Present in all the maternal pieces, especially Kingslover's "Letter to my Daughter at Thirteen" and Minnie Bruce Pratt's "Poem for My Sons" was a common theme of unconditional love and acceptance between mother and child. I know this is a women writers class and that we are meant to study the writings of women, but all this maternal stuff got me thinking about men and their relationships/thoughts of their own children.  It is expected of women both biologically and culturally to be caretakers and sacrificing for their children, yet what is expected of males? Are they supposed to be the strong, protective figure? The dominant parent?

I am currently watching Boy Meets World which is what made me think of the different facets of father/child relationships. Sadly, I couldn't find a video for this specific episode, but essentially it's about Morgan, the 13 year old daughter going on her first date. All throughout the episode, her father is reprimanding what Morgan is wearing for the date, and even trying to prevent the date all together. At one point in the episode, the father is asked why he is so worried about his daughter when he was never worried about his older sons dating and he responds, "well they're boys!" I find this brings up the major question of how differently fathers build relationships with their children, whether they be sons or daughters, and the different expectations that follow.

I just thought the different facets of not only motherhood, but also fatherhood is an interesting topic to explore since we haven't really brought it up much in class.