Opinion | The ‘Impossible Life’ of Equal Devotion to Art and Mothering
nytimes.com
Opinion | The ‘Impossible Life’ of Equal Devotion to Art and Mothering
Tillie Olsen wrote: “In the twenty years I bore and reared my children . . . the simplest circumstances for creation did not exist.” It was a physical problem, a time problem; it was also a question of selfhood. “The obligation to be physically attractive and patient and nurturing and docile and sensitive and deferential . . . contradicts and must
... See moreJulie Phillips • The Baby on the Fire Escape: Creativity, Motherhood, and the Mind-Baby Problem
But that’s no different from what mothers have had to do since the dawn of time: sacrifice the present, in hopes of a better future.
N. K. Jemisin • The Stone Sky (The Broken Earth Book 3)
I used to watch as she read Ms. magazine, sitting upright, at the dining room table. She came of age during second-wave feminism, when women kind of had a choice and kind of didn’t. This made my mom’s ambivalence about motherhood starker and more insistent: It’s within the realm of possibility that my mom’s life could have gone a different, more am... See more
Elise Loehnen • Opinion | The Lies Mothers Tell Themselves and Their Children
the cut - june 11 - 2024What If Motherhood Isn’t Transformative at All?
We’re often told that becoming a parent will alter one’s identity. For me, the change never came.
By Anastasia Berg, editor of the Point
Art: March Avery, Evening Reading, 1972/© 2024 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York; Courtesy of the artist, Private Collection, and BLU
... See moreBut I love being a mom. I’m not always great at it—let’s be very clear about that. Sometimes I yell. I don’t enjoy playing make-believe, and I mostly leave the work of crawling on the floor and pushing Hot Wheels around the rug to Ken and the grandparents. Sometimes, I can get very caught up in my work and have a hard time focusing on what my son i... See more
In Defense of Motherhood
The artist with the least access to social or aesthetic solidarity or approbation has been the artist-housewife. A person who undertakes responsibility both to her art and to her dependent children, with no “tireless affection” or even tired affection to call on, has undertaken a full-time double job that can be simply, practically, destroyingly im
... See moreUrsula K. Le Guin • Dancing at the Edge of the World: Thoughts on Words, Women, Places
The Baby on the Fire Escape: Creativity, Motherhood, and the Mind-Baby Problem
Julie Phillips • 2 highlights
amazon.com