Pregnancy can be defined as a critical moment in a woman’s life when they are arguably are considered the most feminine. One of the most basic and primal differences between men and women is a woman’s capacity to bear children and essentially create life. It’s something that happens every day but it’s a process cloaked in uncertainty and trauma due to the risk involved with giving birth for the child and the mother. As stated in the Ted-ED video “The Surprising Effects of Pregnancy”, pregnancy affects the entire body to accommodate the growth of new life which is no simple feat. Cypress’s dream examines the dynamics of motherhood and its connection to slavery.
Cypress’s dream is set in England after a nuclear war that separated men and women that eventually led to a war between men and women. In this context, Shange allows us to picture a reality in which the patriarchy has been destroyed, replaced by a matriarchy. This perspective redefines the roles of men and women in society, however, it doesn’t erase how biological functions are still linked to gender. In this alternate reality, there are only three positions for women: Mother, Daughter, and Bearer. In this hierarchy, Shange redefines the scope of motherhood in that a woman doesn’t have to give birth in order to be a mother and “there was no higher honor than to be deemed ‘mother'”(Shange 203). Shange is critiquing the definition of motherhood and challenges the reader to examine their own definition of motherhood. Many women have difficulty conceiving due to environmental and health factors beyond their control. Motherhood in this reality isn’t clearly defined, but Mothers are the leaders of the society in which they are tasked with taking care of the population. In other words, being a mother can’t simply be reduced to giving birth to a child, but also someone who nurtures and takes care of an individual(s).
I also think it’s important to inspect the role of “bearers” and why they can’t get the title of “mother”. When Cypress saw her mother as a bearer, I believe that it finally sunk in for her why giving birth was treated as a punishment due to its historical significance in connection to slavery. Most of the bearers were Black and Latin which only reinforced the idea that this was supposed to be slavery by another name.
“Cypress held onto the walls. She was swooning; all of slavery gushing from her stomach… Cypress couldn’t explain that her people had done this before, filled wombs over and over until they collapsed, or the body let go. Brought children to the soil never to be seen again, bred spirits to be smashed, sold, played with until their connection to the idea of humanity was obliterated.”
(Shange 205)
During slavery, the idea that any enslaved women who had children were considered also enslaved was a concept that reduced Black women to mere objects that could produce more slaves and therefore more revenue for southern plantation owners. The definition of motherhood didn’t extend to enslaved women just as in Cypress’s dream with the “bearers” because it was never guaranteed that they could “mother” their children. And I think it’s important to acknowledge that the female body after having children affects not only the body but the mind as well. To give birth is traumatic in and of itself but and then to lose the child is adding salt to the wound. I believe that is part of the reason why being a “bearer” is a punishment because it psychologically, physically, and emotionally damaging to go through that process.
Discussion Questions:
- By definition, femininity is “qualities or attributes regarded as characteristic of women”. What is your definition of femininity and how is it different or similar to the definition above?
- Femininity and womanhood are terms that have overlap but are inherently different. How are these terms alike or different and why?