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?
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I think that your invocation of this idea that women are valued as child bearers at their core is a powerful one. As you alluded to, this is a concept that has come up a lot more in the recent past. Even though miscarriages have always been common, miscarriages and the grief that surround them have made it to the forefront of conversations in the social sciences, and of society in general. I think it is logical to bring this criticism into the context of Cypress’ dream. It is clear that this realization, that women are valued predominantly and sometimes exclusively as child bearers in real life, is an intense one for Cypress. She endures a visceral reaction as she is flooded with this concept and thinking about how not only women in general, but Black women in particular by way of slavery, have been reduced to the role of child rearers throughout history. You point to Cypress’ dream as a way that Shange critiques the definition of motherhood by showing that one does not need to bear a child in order to be a mother. As I mentioned, this is a conversation that is at the forefront of society because parents that pursue adoption, fostering, or other options sometimes don’t get the same respect and recognition that mothers that bore children do. In the context of same-sex couples, it may only be that one of the two female parents bears children, but this doesn’t make the other parent any less of a mother just because they did not grow the child inside them. I’d like to take your points on this dream one step further. You frame Cypress’ dream as Shange’s way of framing motherhood to critique the way that society views the concept. I do not argue that this is not the case, but I also think it’s important to point to why Shange’s depiction/critique still comes up short in regards to gender roles and womanhood as a whole. While Shange depicts a world where women are not defined by their ability or desire to bear children, which is an improvement upon reality, she is still invoking the gendered stereotype that women are meant to be mothers and are defined by motherhood, even if the definition of motherhood here is different than how people in our society tend to view it. The idea that mothers are of the highest honor in this world is still problematic because it points to the idea that the most honorable, womanly women are mothers. Structuring this dream society in this way fails to recognize that motherhood is not synonymous with womanhood. Women are no less womanly if their life is not defined by their ability or decision to raise children. Yes, Shange makes a valid point here by criticizing how society values a woman’s ability/decision to bear children far too highly, but she fails to also criticize the societal praise/expectation that women will want to and should choose to raise children, even if they do not birth them themselves. I think that Shange could have taken this dream world one step further in this fashion in order to critique society’s understanding of womanhood/femininity as a whole, not just motherhood. Society treats women as if they were meant to be caretakers (even if the children they are caring for are not birthed by them, like in this dream), and this is just not the reality or desire for all women. Shange could have taken this idea of women being assumed caretakers and that their femininity is compromised if they do not “fulfill their fated role” as caretakers in society, and used it to create an even more powerful critique of gender roles, femininity, and womanhood, in addition to her existing criticism of motherhood in Cypress’ dream.