(De)constructing the mother: an homoaffective motherhood report

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to problematize how the etymology of a word can determine the way we socially interpret it. Particularly, we are interested in discussing how the word ‘mother’ was and is built in the contemporaneity, and in what ways the experiences of motherhood that displace from the patriarchal standard can broaden the meaning of the term. For this purpose, we traced a path of the historical-etymological revision of the word, while endorsing that words are social constructs. Besides, we present a brief analysis of Mama: um relato de maternidade homoafetiva (Tiboni, 2019) with the intent of problematizing the limited use of the term. In the book, that intends to be a report, but has elements of fiction, the arrival of twins becomes the place where it is possible to revisit the amplitude of what it is to be a ‘mother’. In a moving way, the author invites us to revisit the question: ‘who is the mother of those children?’