Motherhood in SF

From the Bible to the popular song,

There's one theme that we find right along.

Of all ideals they hail as good,

The most sublime is Motherhood.

Tom Lehrer, "Oedipus Rex"

Motherhood is one of the ways by which patriarchal culture defines women. Contrast "fatherhood".

In SF, motherhood may be used in several ways:

• playing out the standard trope that the fiercest fighters are mothers defending their young -- e.g., women turn to violence to protect or avenge their children. See, e.g., Terminator 2; see Aliens (girlchild provides Ripley the opportunity to defend a child); see Buffy's mom - nobody lays a hand on my daughter.
• Motherhood, and pregnancy, as a way for bad women to be redeemed. See, e.g., Darla's pregnancy in Angel (the soulless vampire woman gains a soul through carrying a souled fetus; she kills herself to bear the child ), and Ellen Barkin's character in Switch (the soul of a sinning sexist dead man returns in the body of a woman; the soul is redeemed when the woman dies in childbirth). Note that here, "motherhood" is defined solely by pregnancy/labor/delivery. (This also provides convenient orphan or motherless status to a character.)
• Mother is sainted or awesome or important because she is giving birth or destined to give birth to The One, almost always a male. See, e.g., Dune; the Virgin Mary in Christianity.
• The horror reversal -- In horror, the ideas associated with motherhood -- love, tenderness, protectiveness -- may be transformed or recontextualized to create the sense of horror. Abusive mothers, mothers who eat their young, mothers who love their monstrous young ("That Only a Mother" by Judith Merril; Grendel), etc.; the evil mother who teaches her children to be evil or is willing to use them (e.g., Home (X-Files episode); Deadly Departed (Blood Ties episode 1x05))

See also

• Mother-daughter relationships in SF
• Fatherhood in SF
• Motherlessness