THE POSTMODERN DISCOURSE ON MOTHERHOOD: A CRITICAL REVIEW OF GENDER, POWER, AND REPRODUCTIVE BODY

Abstract

The paper examines the sociocultural and discursive non-essence of motherhood by adopting the postmodern feminist theory. As a socially mediated and power-regulated identity, motherhood would be critically analyzed as an idealized form of expression of womanhood known as a natural and moral relationship that exists between medicine, culture, and gendered forces. The paper is structured under the premises of the Foucauldian concepts of biopower and the Butlerian notion of performativity to examine how reproductive health discourses contribute to the autonomy, subjectivity, and body experiences of women. Through feminist poststructuralist and critical discourse analysis, the paper unravels how medicalization and surveillance turn the maternal body into a point of social control and, at the same time, create an environment of opposition and redefinition. The results suggest that institutional power is often strengthened with the help of such discourses of good motherhood, autonomy, and reproductive responsibility, as long as empowerment is discussed. Nevertheless, women as well are confrontational and interpretive of these discourses by offering alternative maternal practices and counter-discourses. The paper concludes with an understanding that motherhood should be redefined as a dynamic process of discursive embodiment where culture, power, and lived experience meet, as opposed to a biologically determined role. This discussion has value to feminist sociology as it helps manifest the role that language and power play in the development of maternal identity in modern society and demands more comprehensive and fair depictions of motherhood in health and social policy.