AMERICA LOVES MOTHERS. Or so it claims. In reality, it loves wielding mothers as symbols more than it does the actual women who bear and (or) raise children. Motherhood is used for all manner of political ends as economic conditions, public policy, and social mores make the practical realities of mothering confounding and crushing. Mothers are at once venerated and subjugated, cherished and expended. Navigating the divide between the cultural meaning of motherhood and the messy experience of living it is a Sisyphean project.
