Motherhood is not natural, which is exactly why it can be done badly

Evidence

There is no such thing as an “unnatural mother,” since maternal love has nothing natural about it: but precisely because of that, there are bad mothers. … There is extravagant bad faith in the conflation of contempt for women and respect shown for mothers. It is a criminal paradox to deny women all public activity, to close masculine careers to them, to proclaim them incapable in all domains, and to nonetheless entrust to them the most delicate and most serious of all undertakings: the formation of a human being. There are many women who, out of custom and tradition, are still refused education, culture, responsibilities, and activities that are the privileges of men, and in whose arms, nevertheless, babies are placed without scruple, as in earlier life they were consoled for their inferiority to boys with dolls; they are deprived of living their lives; as compensation, they are allowed to play with flesh-and-blood toys. — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 1534

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to Rousseau’s and prewar French natalist ideology Beauvoir is arguing against, and to later feminist critique of the myth of maternal instinct. Also resonates with Adrienne Rich’s ‘Of Woman Born.’ — connects to: Motherhood is framed as a sacred obligation rather than a natural need; The maternal obligation is a social construct, not a natural dictate — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 1533; The mother-child bond is socially constructed, not natural law. — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 1535 (+3 more)
• SEED: Angle: ‘the conflation of contempt for women and respect for mothers’ as a durable ideological move — how cultures simultaneously demean women and idealize the maternal function.
• QUESTION: Worth chasing: does Beauvoir’s claim that maternal love is ‘nothing natural’ prefigure the contemporary ‘motherhood is a choice, not an instinct’ literature?

Broader Connections

• The maternal obligation is a social construct, not a natural dictate #corroborates (0.90) — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 1533
• Maternal vocation is socially imposed, not instinctually innate #corroborates (0.90) — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 693
• The mother-child bond is socially constructed, not natural law. #corroborates (0.85) — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 1535
• Maternal behavior stems from situation and attitude, not instinct #corroborates (0.85) — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 1503
• Womanhood is socially constructed, not biologically destined #corroborates (0.75) — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 676