Who Is Mother?

Who is your mother? Are you someone’s mother? According to Oxford Dictionary of English, the prior meaning of ‘mother’ is ‘a woman in a relation to a child or children to whom she has given birth.’ Original meaning of ‘mother’ was a biological mother. However, the meaning of ‘mother’ has altered so far. It is no longer simple as such.

In Baraitser’s postscript of Ruddick, she introduces Ruddick’s argument saying “maternity is only ever a social practice, one that can be performed by men and women alike, and with a range of ‘others’ that may or may not be our biological children.” She says ‘mother’ neither has to be a woman who gave a birth to her children nor even a woman.

Considering with the case of Yumi and Cass in the novel All Over Creation written by Ozeki, in the scene that Yumi came back from a date with Elliot in order to pick up Poo by Cass, “Poo, sensing his mother’s fever, struggled in Cass’s arms. He wanted to be near the source, to press against that radiating energy, ... and he bounded up and down in Yummy’s arms, gurgling and padding her cheeks with his fat pink palms as she covered his face with kisses. (P214)” Yumi is Poo’s mother biologically. She does not take enough care of Poo and her other two children. She asks her friend Cass to look after them and hangs out with her boyfriend Elliott frequently. Nevertheless, in this scene, Poo still expressed his happiness to see Yumi and he could not help getting out of Cass’s arm.

Looking at Cass’s side, “Cass wanted Poo to be comfortable. Comfortable, but more than that, she wanted him to be safe. (P215-216)” Cass is not Poo’s mother biologically and she is just Yumi’s friend who looks after her children. Nonetheless, it is apparent that Cass plays role of ‘mother’ for Yumi’s children further more than Yumi. Cass’s emotion in this scene that she wanted Poo to be comfortable and safe is her maternity.

            Cass wished if she could be Yumi’s children’s mother. She is envious of Yumi that she has them. She also feels it unfair that Yumi’s children still regard Yumi as their ‘mother’ rather than her although she is taking care of them much more than Yumi. On the other hand, Yumi lacks of responsibility to take care of her children as their ‘mother’ and depends too much on Cass. However it does not mean that Yumi lacks of love towards her children. She always wants her children to stay in love with her and in the scene mentioned above, Poo is answering to it. As long as love towards children and desire to be their mother exists, everyone is ‘mother’ of them. In these scenes, both of Cass and Yumi are Poo’s mother.

Moving focus onto today’s society, the case could be much more complicated. For instance the case broadcasted on documentary program, a woman gave birth to a child while she was in custody. Her child was sent to children’s home. After several years, this woman was released. She wanted to meet her child desperately as ‘mother’ but the staff in children’s home did not allow her to. Her child has grown up with another mother so it was not good for that child’s mental to know her real biological mother.

This woman is a biological mother of her child and also she has love towards her child and desire to be mother of her child. According to the definition of ‘mother’ figured out from Yumi and Cass’s case, this woman is a ‘mother’ but in this case what makes it not simple is that her child does not recognize her existence. She can define herself as her child’s ‘mother’ but she cannot make her child recognize her as her ‘mother’.

As time goes by, definition of ‘mother’ keeps changing. ‘Mother’ had been only person who gave a birth to her children and then nowadays the range of ‘mother’ became wider. There are multiple shapes of ‘mother’ and ‘mother’ is not a word we can define anymore.

 

 

Works Cited

Baraitser, Lisa. “Sara Ruddick, 1935-2011 A Mother’s Thought RP 167  (May/Jun 2011)/Obituary.” Radical Philosophy. RP, 2011. Web. Nov. 6, 2015.  https://www.radicalphilosophy.com/obituary/sara-ruddick-1935–2011

Ozeki, Ruth. All Over Creation. Penguin, 2004. Print.

paddington. “Who Could Be a ‘Mother’?“ Serendip Studio. Serendip Studio, 2015. Web. Dec. 12, 2015. /oneworld/changing-our-story-2015/who-could-be-mother