#Motherland (The Handmaid's Tale) | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

sometimesoliloquy · 2 years ago

Text

The Handmaid’s Tale 5x08 “Motherland” (or “This is Not the Beach you’re Looking for”) 👀

Whoo boy, sorry this one’s so late, life and stuff has got my brain feeling broken this past week. Let’s see if I can string some coherent sentences together about this episode, where in addition to heavy parallels on motherhood (and Serena and June again, of course), some big/dramatic events also seem to finally be put into motion, and it only took 4/5 of the season to do (yay I can do fractions, my brain isn’t fully broken!). I have to say, though, taking everything into consideration I am nervous as hell for episode 9...

So we open 5x08 with June daydreaming: a flashback of June making pancakes with Hannah, but jarred to reality by blaring car horns, as asshole protestors yell in the background. Apparently now they have to deal not only with the wannabe Gilead cult member nutjobs, but also a suddenly Canadian nationalistic fervor bringing mobs who look and sound like they just came from a Trump rally, but carrying beaver signs and saying “eh” a lot more. June’s phone rings and we learn it’s Serena (again), apparently she’s been telemarketing the shit out of June for a month while in detention. Moira expresses surprise that Serena even thinks they would help her, meanwhile honestly I’m wondering how she even got June’s digits. Luke can tune out the protestors and doesn’t seem to give a shit about newborns dying in the woods (does anything bother this guy? (spoiler: we find out later).

Dramatically ominous music plays over a cut of crashing waves and cawing seagulls and I’m thinking someone on THT is definitely a Hitchcock fan (first the Vertigo inspired Wheeler household and now an ode to The Birds). We narrow in to our favorite pithy commander Lawrence giving several other commanders a tour of the shiny new location for The Real Housewives of Gilead New Bethlehem. The only one I recognize aside from Jlaw and his sidekick puppy Nick is that smug bastard Calhoun (who really reminds me soo much of a youngish Republican senator), so ostensibly they’ve done a good job of whittling down the competition. Calhoun seems fully on board with what Jlaw touts as the more modernized, liberal Gilead, where they can welcome back prodigal sons and daughters to get away from those nasty Canadians and reunite with family (more on that in a second). New Commander McBeardy expresses skepticism and wants to know how they’ll keep this from their “people” in “Gilead Proper” because after all if the people who Gilead proper isn’t super amazing for start trying to defect to diet Gilead, who will they have left to oppress and torture? Jlaw however reminds him that Gilead isn’t exactly free press friendly (RIP Globe reporters). I mean not to mention half their population gets body parts cut off for reading. And here I am skeptical, because while Jlaw certainly has a point about the press, if one of the intents was to reunite the new New Bethlehemites with family in Gilead… wouldn’t… people in Gilead proper come to know about it? Would they just be secretly kidnapping these people from Gilead and forcibly relocating them in NB? McBeardy is likewise still not convinced but Nick reminds him of the bullet he put in Putnam’s head lack of moral fortitude and the Commander changes his tune reeeal quick. He concedes, admitting he was hearing the “deceased Putnam” in his ears (I thought I heard “diseased” at first but my subtitles say deceased and honestly I guess either works), as our Gilead mafia duo walk smugly away.

Speaking of smug, for once Serena is not: sadly pumping in a not so private corner of the detention center visitors area (hm why does this look familiar?).

For, as we soon see, Mrs Alanis Wheeler arrives to (very reluctantly) pick up, because OF COURSE she’s stealing the baby fostering Noah while Serena's detained. Alanis talks about pregnancy hormones like they are something she knows about, while being the utmost amount of condescending and complaining about the baby she’s stolen (hi, Naomi!). She's doing the "crying it out" method on a one month old and I really don't know shit about babies but even I can tell that's not right. Such a warm woman, it's a wonder why little Noah cries so much! Serena is clearly too emotional and sentimental and weak minded to be a mother, though, because if there's anything newborn babies need it's discipline. Serena reminds Alanis (and us) that she's a big baddie who overthrew a country... but unfortunately she gave all that up to chase after June's baby, who she was trying to steal, who she's also completely forgotten about now that Noah has filled the baby sized hole in her womb. Back at the Bankhole/Osborne/Strand household, the three are scrubbing anti immigration graffiti off their sidewalk while the aforementioned mob of protesters obnoxiously parades by. I guess it only took a few years of US refugees streaming into their country, and for some reason being able to afford really nice houses in their crowded city, for Canadians to stop being polite, and start getting real. June very casually relates the task to scrubbing blood off the wall in Gilead (ya know, from the hanging dead bodies. Same same). Luke pretends like she didn't say that, and asks if they should just say fuck it and move to one of the 2 far away remaining US states or Europe as if the entire show hasn’t been about trying to get back their daughter who’s trapped just right over the border in a hellish regime, which June reminds him of (oh, right). But before this can go any further, she gets a surprise call from Mr. Commander Lawrence of all people (I wonder what he wants).

June meets JLaw for a lovely stroll along the waterfront while he rambles esoterically about his esoteric vision for Gilead and how it all went wrong because he underestimated the depravity of religious nutjobs (really, my guy? I thought you were supposed to be a mental giant or something but ok, maybe my bar is just skewed from having grown up Catholic). He gives her the New Bethlehem sales pitch, which she extremely side eyes until he claims she will be able to reunite with Hannah once she's "grown" (so like 14 I guess) and running her own household. At this point I have to be super skeptical, because for Jlaw to "bring Hannah to New Bethlehem" I assume her new husband, whoever he might be, would have to be OK with it (not to mention I can't imagine Cmdr. MacKenzie would just be super cool with it), so I' not sure if he just has that much confidence in his far-reaching power or he's bullshitting her to win her over, but I'm kind of leaning towards the latter. But he does know June's achilles heel. Seeming to miss the fact that Hannah would already be married off in this case, which is her #1 goal in trying to stop, she's just emotionally overwhelmed with the possibility of being able to be near Hannah. Lawrence reassures her of her safety by saying Nick has been helping with this pet project, he's been grooming Nick, not sexually (I mean clearly Nick is so attractive that it bears clarification). Luke is shockingly not so excited by this proposal. New Gilead Bethlehem is one place he does not want to move to (not that I blame him in this case). June argues that she would risk anything to be with Hannah again, "wouldn't you?" and Luke says "of course" but I mean he is also literally saying that he wouldn't, here, so it seems like a bit of a contradiction. He insists they focus on getting Hannah out, because that's worked so well so far, and June reminds him of what a fucking disappointment Tuello is (sorry, Mark!) and the uselessness of the entire remaining US government in general ("they're politicians, they don't give a shit about us"/"what has the American government done for us?"). He proceeds to call Jlaw a nazi and I was half expecting him to bring up June's "nazi" boyfriend as well but of course they dance silently around the topic of Nick as usual. The only thing I agree with Luke on here is that they should NOT take Nichole anywhere near those motherfuckers (or child fuckers, I guess). When Luke tries to egregiously mansplain June’s trauma and womanly emotions to her, it surprisingly doesn’t go over well. I'm also calling BS on his "I did that (turned Serena in) for you!", nah, my dude, you clearly did that for you. What also doesn't go over well is him saying "just let me protect you sometimes", but I very much appreciate that June and I seem to be on the same damn page here, because a second after I yelled "she doesn't fucking NEED your protection!!" at the tv (what, you don't do that??) she says basically the same thing to him. Amen, June. She doesn't need his protection, but Hannah does. Lawrence visits Serena in detention, and tells her he's generously "helped her" by convincing the Wheelers to let her return to her handmaid room in their house to nurse Noah. Lawrence talks about her breasts and then is done talking about her breasts. He reminds her the Wheelers have legal status to care for the baby, which I guess finally answers my question of their citizenship because they must (technically) be Canadian citizens then, not Gileadean, right? She still insists she will not "live in the same house as her child's kidnappers" which makes Lawrence correctly ask if she has an "irony deficiency" (I mean). At this point I think Serena does actually see what a flaming hypocrite she is but doesn’t give a fuck because she still thinks she's better than the hundreds of women she helped enslave as handmaids.

It’s nighttime and June is comforting an adorable little baby Nichole who is disturbed by the asshole protesters again. She sings her to sleep with a song she used to sing Hannah "let me be your mirror" and it's a very sweet moment (I didn't even notice the doll from Nick until others pointed it out but I love that attention to detail here). June softly tells a now peacefully sleeping Nichole that she wants her to know her big sister, that she would love her, and at this point I'm very much thinking about The Testaments, and I'm both sad about it and also kind of excited for it? I’m also kind of hoping they incorporate the song into the Testaments, as maybe a kind of vague hazy memory they both have. June wakes up the next morning still in Nichole's bed, hearing Luke and Tuello talking downstairs. She interrupts and Tuello tries to appeal to June's patriotism and sense of civic duty but she "not without my daughter”'s him. She continues to bully classified military information out of him but she's not happy with it. June has a heart-to-heart on the porch with Rita, who apparently has not actually dissipated into thin air after all. Rita tells her it would be crazy to consider going back but also that if her son was still alive, she would do anything and go to the ends of the earth to see him again. They have a touching moment of bonding and given how little we’ve seen of Rita this season I hope it’s not actually the last time we’ll see her.

June visits Serena (for a person with no friends she sure does seem to get a lot of visitors) to try and get more information on New Bethlehem. Interestingly, Serena knows that Lawrence has been pitching it "since the beginning" and it's been in the works for years, but she doesn't know much more. She says it seems he has more power than ever implying that maybe because of that he can actually make it work now, which is also interesting because he seemed very powerful, or at least revered, when we first met him, but I think back then he was probably trying to fly under the radar to protect Eleanor, now he's much more cavalier with blatant power moves since he has nothing left to lose except for his life (which he already thought was a goner after Angel's Flight) and his legacy (which ostensibly he is trying to save with this plan). Serena has her own agenda, though, she wants June to help her get out of detention and get her baby back. Really I'd think she'd have better luck trying her boyfriend Tuello, because June finally says what I think we were all hoping she would ever since last episode: "Serena, we are not FRIENDS". Serena, ever the narcissist, assumes June forgave her because she helped her and Noah, but June's like "actually I'm just a good person and a better Christian than you, bitch". June tells her to march her Viking ass back to the Wheelers scary mansion and gives her the 101 on how to be a vengeful, scheming handmaid, and it's pretty fucking delicious. She tells her "you can't help your child if you're not with them", clearly mirroring her own thoughts about Hannah and New Bethlehem. I like that there was kind of a mirroring and chain reaction of women and motherhood here: June asking Rita what she would do and then Serena asking what June would do, and it's different situations but basically the same answer. June walks away with new resolve and clarity, and pays a surprise visit to Lawrence, who appears to be at the Gilead embassy propaganda hub" information center" even though I thought it was supposed to be shut down, but maybe in the month that's passed they got the proper permits or whatever? She asks Lawrence to stop Hannah from getting married but hey, "Gilead's gonna Gilead". Not an acceptable answer, June does not want to stand by while her daughter is raped by someone twice her age, although honestly from what we've seen it's more likely to be 3 or 4 times her age (gag). She calls him out for being a sick fuck who created a world where women are abused and tortured, and in a rare moment of seriousness, he shows a glimpse of the full burden of guilt on his shoulders. If he'd known what would have happened he'd have just let the human race die out. He desperately tries to convince her of his plan working, not just to form the "utopia" of New Bethlehem, but for its more modern, liberal values to spread further into Gilead, making it a better, kinder, less murder-y, torture-y Gilead (in like 10-15 years). That's the thing, though. He seems desperate: for this to work, for it to not all have been for nothing, for Eleanor not to have died for nothing. I wonder if that will end up leading to his downfall.

Speaking of Eleanor, the next scene we see June out in her garden at night (her baby seedlings have graduated), and it reminded me of the scene in season 3 where June has to bury the killed Martha at night and sees Eleanor "gardening" in that spot the next day to help cover it up. She's looking up at the moon and thinking about Hannah, but then Luke interrupts her daydream to tell her she got a "package". Inside, they take a disc out of the mysterious envelope and I'm thinking 1) do people really still have disc drives on their laptops anymore?? and 2) I really wish we could tell whose handwriting that is on the envelope... It's a video of a line of girls at the wives school, and we see it zoom in on Hannah as she seems to notice someone filming, and stops for a second until her peers prompt her forward. I have to wonder who or what she’s seeing, as well as who sent the video. I at first assumed Lawrence as most logical(?) but if so he definitely shot his plan in the foot there (unless it’s part of a larger more devious scheme). Nick?? Will we ever know or is it just another mysterious plot device that will never be properly explained? Sigh.

June and Luke fight about New Bethlehem (again) and she lets out some resentment she must have held deep inside for a loong time:"What are you going to do? Same thing you've done for the last 7 years? Fucking NOTHING?" She immediately regrets it but while I think she was definitely sorry it came out in the way it did, I also think she still means it. And not even that she thinks Luke just happily sat on his hands; she knows that he did what he could, within his skills set and imagination. But she also knows from experience how useless, how in vain, that kind of action can be. And it was actually very refreshing to see her pissed at Luke for once, not deferential, or so careful of his feelings. While he is right that they could certainly be walking into danger with Jlaw’s proposal, that the minute they cross Gilead could put her on the wall, she's also right that his "I don't know, we'll figure it out" just isn't good enough any more. Luke's resentment comes out, too: "you stayed, you stayed for so many years!" , echoing him asking Moira in season 4: "did she choose this? She knew she'd probably never see us again". Which I feel like still comes from a place of ignorance and insecurity (and selfishness?) on his part. I mean, June literally passed up ONE opportunity to escape (end of s2 when she handed Nichole to Emily) and Nichole was born by then so "by choice" she "stayed" like 1 year max., but ok. I mean she tried to escape before while pregnant but got caught, and then she sacrificed herself to make Angel's flight even happen, if she didn't stay back as a distraction, none of them would have gotten away. June and Luke embrace at the end, after she breaks down, and they obviously have love for each other and always will for Hannah, but their relationship is clearly broken. Back at the NB gated community, Lawrence is now laying the sales pitch on Nick. Nick plays it close to the vest as always but he seems very skeptical. I don't think he wants June or Nichole anywhere near Gilead considering he's risked his life to get both of them out, and his number one priority is to keep them safe. He does not seem tempted by Jlaw's "sister wife" proposal. He wanted the beach in Maui with June and Nichole, not polygamy on this cold-ass beach in Gilead, damnit.

June and Luke have called Tuello about the Hannah video, and they're talking about metadata, and I'm thinking I really liking Tuello's contrasting clothing patterns here, when did he become such a fashionista, and then I'm thinking that I feel either really old or like an idiot or both because I have no fucking clue what metadata is. Data about itself? What does that even mean? How does one obtain a location from that? Was it included in the video on purpose so they could find the location? Or was it an unintended side effect? I still can't help but like Tuello even if he does have terrible taste in women and is kind of useless. Serena arrives back at her other prison the Wheelers, and is forced to suck up, much like June was in 2x04, except she’s not just been fully broken into a hopeless shell of herself, and she's still getting the extremely cushy version of being a handmaid.She’s putting on a contrite face to her wife and commander, but we can see how pissed she is by how tightly she’s clenching her hands behind her back.

Finally, after a quick and insincere "praise be!" (I think one of my favorite things in this show is actually when people say “praise be” as a “fuck you”), she hears her baby crying and runs up (all those) stairs, somehow not gasping for air, to find him being looked after by a sweet and lovely nanny, (so at least it's not just "cry-it-out" Alanis) who leaves him in her care. Serena has a beautiful, emotional reunion with Noah, who finally stops crying as she holds and breastfeeds him, certainly different from the scene where she tries to do that with Holly/Nichole back in the day (yikes, awkward, right?). Part of me wants to see what schemes Serena gets into as a handmaid-by-any-other-name but the bigger part of me would be extremely fine with her story line being at least much reduced, because as amazing of an actor Yvonne is, I really don’t think we need “The Handmaid Lite's Tale”. We get it, Serena is getting a taste of her own medicine, can she now just fade into obscurity?

June is super on edge waiting for Tuello to get back to them about the metadata (still don’t know what that means), and she excuses herself in the middle of dinner to go get apples for Nichole, because Nichole needs apples and they're out of apples, we don't have any apples, Moira! but she doesn't need help getting the apples. She's spacing out at the market, getting apples, when her phone rings and finally Tuello is on the line, miraculously telling her the news she's been dreaming of: the metadata(??) pulled through and they have the location of Hannah's school, and they're going to do a raid, they're going to get her out (you really can't actually hear that last part but I cheat and use the subtitles, so). June is overwhelmed, she is overjoyed, she is over these apples. She makes a mess and hugs the kindly grocer, before running giddily back down the street, full of hope and joy. And listen, I obviously know it was just a random excuse to get out of the house and keep busy but I also can't help thinking, "WAIT BUT NICHOLE NEEDS THOSE APPLES!" and honestly I have no idea why a toddler would need apples anyway (do they?? Do they even have strong enough teeth to eat apples? Apples are pretty hard. I told you I don't know shit about babies) and I don't know why I'm overthinking the apples this much, but still it kind of bothers me that she just completely abandons the apples the second she gets the news about Hannah and oh my god are the APPLES A METAPHOR??

Anyway, June arrives back at the house, much less breathless than I would be, having sprinted all that way (seriously, what is these women’s workout routine?) and tells Luke and Moira the amazing news. They're of course incredulous and overjoyed as well, jumping up and down in glee, and poor Mark FINALLY gets some love (geez, the poor guy's bound to have self esteem issues by now, right?).

The hopeful music swells as we cut to a beautiful preteen Hannah in another garden. It's not nighttime and the moon isn’t out but she is peacefully planting, looking up at the sky, and that still seems very a much a mirror to June earlier. The sound of jet engines roars in the background as we pan out to the birds eye view of the wives school yard, laid out in interlocking "U"'s. ** OK, I'll say it: god, could Luke have been any more condescending this episode? As much as he pissed me off, though, I was actually glad for their fighting, because at least it means they’re not skirting around the real issues anymore (well, except for Nick, I guess). It's so clear to me that the divide between them has been growing again ever since 5x06, with a distinct turning point coming at the end of 5x07, leading directly to their arguments here. He has tried to get on the same page as June, tried to understand her (and she's maybe tried...like, a little bit(?)... to see his perspective). But the fact is that despite their shared bond of their daughter, and as much as Luke hates what has and what could happen to Hannah, and that she's not there with them... I think at least a part of him has given up that they'll ever get her back. He never thought June would escape, probably never thought he'd have her back and be raising another child together. And even if he'll always mourn the loss of Hannah and feel guilty for not being able to protect her, it could be enough for him: to live a life with June and Nichole, move away, move on. But June will never be able to move on; not with Hannah in Gilead, her fate uncertain, married to god knows who. Nothing will ever be "enough" for her as long as Hannah isn't with her, or at least safe. Their arguments in this episode also speak greatly to their different experiences over these past years, which have informed how they now think and operate. Luke has been safe in Canada, though for the most part he's felt helpless here. Maybe at first hopeful that the Canadian government, or what's left of the US government, can do something, but growing more and more jaded of potential progress as time goes by. He's barely had any news or visibility on Hannah since she was taken at the age of 5, just a few photographs and what June relays to him. So I also think maybe Hannah, and the chance of getting her back, has become less and less concrete over the years, less and less of a possibility to him. June on the other hand, has actually seen Hannah multiple times, talked to her, even if the last time was traumatizing. She's been so close for years, which both makes Hannah, especially the current version, more real to June, and also makes June's guilt, and desperation, to save her even greater. But while Luke's sense of impotency probably grew as the bureaucratic avenue continued to fail, June actually found a greater strength she never knew she had in Gilead. Her will to survive, her burning anger and love for her child and then children formed her into a bolder, more empowered version of herself. She's achieved impossible things, or things that should have been impossible in Gilead: falling in love, having a healthy baby and getting her away to safety, getting 86 other children and 9 Martha's out, killing multiple commanders, getting out herself. So why shouldn't she keep believing, that no matter how crazy and impossible it may seem, that she can get Hannah out as well, and save her from the certain fate that awaits her in Gilead. More than that, she has to believe it, much like Lawrence has to believe he can make New Bethlehem a success and eventually reform all of Gilead. Also similar to Lawrence, she is desperate, and that can be dangerous, can cause a person to take serious chances despite the obvious risks. But I think that as long as she can be confident in Nichole's safety, she will risk her life and anything else for the chance of seeing Hannah safe as well. Like Lawrence, she feels like she will either see her mission to fruition, or die trying. And if this raid does not go as planned (which I don't think it will because you know why), even if June doesn't end up going to NB, I can't imagine that she and Luke can keep on like this. So we come full circle with the episode title, "Motherland". Lawrence of course refers to Gilead and New Bethlehem, specifically, as the "Motherland", which is interesting because considering the misogynist patriarchal bullshit that built it, you'd think he'd say "Fatherland". Whether it' Jlaw's nod to the fact that it's the mothers who are really doing the work in perpetuating the human race, or just PR lip service to June, the title also certainly speaks to the very specific and far-reaching territory of motherhood itself: as we see from June, and Rita, and even eventually Serena: a mother will never give up on her child, will risk her own freedom and safety to be with them (no matter who tells them they're being too emotional), and to protect them. It's perhaps the most powerful bond that can exist.

#the handmaid's tale #the handmaids tale season 5 #june osborne #nick blaine #osblaine #tht #tht s5 #Motherland #review #recap

27 notes · View notes

radicalfeministnews · 3 years ago

Text

Article to consider and critically discuss: "A wave of TV shows, films and books is now really getting to grips with the difficult, and sometimes shocking, realities of becoming a mother."

Media by women discussed: dark TV comedy-horror "The Baby", book, The Panic Years, by journalist Nell Frizzell, the 2016 film Prevenge (horror), Maggie Gyllenhaal's 2021 Netflix adaptation of Elena Ferrante's 2006 novel, The Lost Daughter, the much lighter sitcoms Motherland and Workin' Moms, the comedy-drama TV show from Australia The Letdown covering mothers' PTSD and struggles, Marianne Levy's new book, a collection of essays, Don't Forget To Scream written by Levy when pregnant and directly after about her experience, more books by mothers about motherhood, Mother Ship by Francesa Segal, I Am Not Your Baby Mother by Candice Brathwaite, My Wild and Sleepless Nights by Clover Stroud, A Life’s Work: On Becoming A Mother by Rachel Cusk... and Fiction books, Nightbitch by Rachel Yoder, The Harpy by Megan Hunter, and The School for Good Mothers by Jessamine Chan on the "bad mother" stereotype and losing custody of children.

The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood is mentioned at the end.

dark TV comedy-horror "The Baby" "We were excited about the possibility of exploding cultural ideals around motherhood," says co-creator Siân Robins-Grace about the starting point for the series, "and revealing the darker, violent or oppressive forces at play in that kind of ideal account of what motherhood should be. The genre of horror obviously allows you to take that to a really extreme place, and set up some really taboo situations to explore why they might be taboo."

Co-creator also said: "I think a lot of ways that motherhood is depicted is thin and uncritical, and reinforces the idea that 'the mother' is cis, female, straight, middle-class, white, caring and nurturing." so ya know, wonderful implication that a woman admitting struggle in motherhood or revulsion to it is "not cis" or that mothers being female is a stereotype. But in general she is probably just buzzwording

Her co-creator Lucy Gaymer adds that for her, the series – and genre – was a way to process her own internal battles about motherhood: "The genesis of this idea comes from me being in my 30s and feeling really confused about whether I wanted to become a parent or not, and I didn't realise that until after we'd plotted episode one, when I was like, 'Oh, of course I had that idea as it represents what it would feel like for me to become a parent right now'. It definitely comes from that place of anxiety, and also of jealousy of people who seem to feel so clearly one way or another. That feeling of not being sure feels scary and sometimes isolating."

The article name checks Rosemary's Baby, The Omen and Mommie Dearest (films) as examples of horror depictions of motherhood, and I want to say while I don't know the 2nd two the film of Rosemary's Baby is sexist and from a sexualizing, terrorizing women as titillation, male view, even if we could also have a good reading of it (disagreement welcome)

A recent book, The Panic Years, by journalist Nell Frizzell. The book covers the "biological deadline" women have to consider when thinking about trying to be pregnant at some point

"2016 film Prevenge, another horror story in which a pregnant woman's foetus orders her to carry out a series of murders to avenge her partner's death. As the baby's chipmunk-esque voice threatens her ("What did I say will happen if you don't do as I say? Blood will be shed, one way or another") it's extreme and ridiculous of course, but, deep down, speaks to fears that many carry about the power that the living being inside them holds over them. As Ruth (Alice Lowe) says about missing an ultrasound scan: "I don't want to know what's in there. I'm scared of her. I'm not even in control. It's like I'm some crap, banged out car and she's driving, I'm just the vehicle," she tries to explain to the patronising midwife, who replies with another platitude."

More quotes from the article on Prevenge:

While I've never procreated a homicidal infant, I have had two babies delivered prematurely by emergency C-section who both required a five-week-long stay in a NICU (neonatal intensive care unit) – and so slasher horror plot aside, the abject terror around labour and birth that the film depicts is something I can relate to. Even before my double traumatic labours, while pregnant with my first child, I remember feeling like the experience was akin to knowing you're going to be in a car crash, but you don't know when, or how bad it's going to be.

Understandably, it's hard to relax and "enjoy the pregnancy" as you're so often reminded by healthcare professionals, midwives and anyone else who happens to be walking past in the street. Portrayals in popular culture push the idea that babies are something that happen to you, rather than because of you. In Prevenge – aside from all the slash-and-kill sprees – it's implied that Ruth is already a bad mother as she's breaking the unspoken code of complying and not complaining, as her baby hasn't even been born yet. In an interview with Indiewire, Lowe – who was eight months' pregnant when she wrote, acted in and directed the film – said: "I kind of took all my frustrations of what I was feeling… Suddenly, you're a mother and people think different about you and you don't have control over your job anymore. All of this stuff, I was feeling fairly grim and dark about, and I just put it in this film."

"Another mother breaking the code is Leda, the protagonist of The Lost Daughter, Maggie Gyllenhaal's 2021 Netflix adaptation of Elena Ferrante's 2006 novel. While not a horror story, Leda (Olivia Colman) is regarded as something of a monster by the family she meets on the beach while holidaying in Greece – including the pregnant woman who she tells bluntly: "Children are a crushing responsibility". The character then flips the script on how mothers are expected to act with her unsettlingly unpredictable behaviour: she helps find a lost young girl on the beach to the relief of her family, only to steal her doll, watching the girl's devastation unfold, to play with at home. Over the course of the film, we discover she's behaved in this kind of impulsive way before, committing the most unthinkable, most transgressive of acts – in the eyes of much of society, anyway – and walking out of her family home, leaving her two young daughters behind.

Through flashbacks we see young Leda (Jessie Buckley) struggle as a young mum with her career, relationships, sexuality and personal sense of being, as well as some clearly unprocessed trauma from her own mother. The story asks the audience to confront an uncomfortable question: who was my mother before I was born? What were her desires, wills and opinions before she was in this role; and what has happened to those now?"

When it comes to the frustrations of motherhood, the sitcoms Motherland and Workin' Moms explore this territory in a lighter fashion, foregrounding in a both realistic and hilarious way the manic juggle that parents – mainly mums, if we're being honest – are expected to undertake. Mistakes will inevitably be made, and then there's the guilt and shame to contend with when this happens.

Another comedy-drama that has nailed the complications and conflicting emotions of the maternal experience is Australia's The Letdown. So much popular culture tells the story of pregnancy and birth – typically shown in a nice, neat, two-minute montage of a woman crying and screaming – and then wraps things up there. Which is why The Letdown was refreshingly unusual in starting its story when its lead character was two-months post-birth. Having been through a distressing labour, we see Audrey (Alison Bell) seriously minimising her experience and telling her mum-and-baby group: "It was fine, thanks, in the end, C-section," while also emphasising she was "not too posh to push. I didn't elect it." She's already guiltily justifying an experience that was out of her hands, in the hope that people don't judge her for it.

"As the show goes on through its two series, we're shown in both banal and excruciating detail how difficult it can be just to get through the day with a newborn, and the emotional weight of the first year that hangs heavy each day. Finally, fighting back tears, Audrey admits why she's struggling: "It wasn't a great start. I kept arguing for a natural birth because I'd read all this stuff and… we nearly lost her." One of the other characters later suggests Audrey has PTSD – official figures estimate anywhere between three to nine percent of women who give birth do, although it's likely that many more women are never diagnosed. For me, that PTSD hit home on my son's first birthday – while everyone was celebrating his arrival, I was experiencing upsetting flashbacks of the anniversary of one of the scariest days of my life. Everything ended up fine, I was reminded by my partner and well-meaning friends, and that's all that mattered, wasn't it?"

Marianne Levy's new book, Don't Forget To Scream. In one anecdote, she explains: "I got chatting to a mum at the school gate and I asked her about her experience of birth. 'Oh, it was awful,' she said. 'It's why I only have one. But, you know, it's fine.' 'Is it?' I said. She thought for a moment. 'No'."

Don't Forget To Scream is a collection of essays making sense of the psychological shifts and heavy emotional turmoil of becoming a mother, which also reflect on why people are so unwilling to talk about these. "After my daughter was born eight years ago, when I tried to tell people what was happening to me, they told me I was wrong, or mistaken," Levy tells BBC Culture, explaining what led her to write the book. "It was as though, on becoming a mother, my language had lost its meaning. A few times, they literally walked away. So when my son was born four years later, instead of speaking, I wrote. I found I could be truthful on the page in a way that I could not in conversation."

More visceral books about birth and bringing up children: Mother Ship by Francesa Segal, I Am Not Your Baby Mother by Candice Brathwaite, My Wild and Sleepless Nights by Clover Stroud

The writer that arguably first paved the way for this line of memoir, Rachel Cusk's A Life’s Work: On Becoming A Mother (2001). Cusk – an acclaimed novelist – left London with her partner and small child, found herself pregnant once again, and wrote what one reviewer described as "akin to a war diary".

Cusk faced fall out from publishing it: "I was accused of child-hating, of postnatal depression, of shameless greed, of irresponsibility, of pretentiousness, of selfishness, of doom-mongering and, most often, of being too intellectual." But equally, she noted how she was also lauded for her frankness, quoting one appreciative critic who had written how "Motherhood, as it is lived, is still individual, personal, private, and therefore deeply undervalued, sometimes even by those of us who move between the 'real' world of work and the shadow world of family life. Between these worlds, Cusk has crafted a work of beauty and wisdom."

Other writers have notably been turning to fiction recently to portray motherhood in its most animalistic form – from the woman who metamorphosises into a dog in Rachel Yoder's Nightbitch (now being made into a film with Amy Adams) to the half-bird-half-human inspiration for Megan Hunter's tale of family life and adultery, The Harpy. Or they have gone dystopian, as with The School for Good Mothers by Jessamine Chan which examines the "bad mother" stereotype via the tale of a mother losing custody of her daughter and being sent to an institution in order to dwell on her failings.

Key Quote in the Article:

"For me, the negative depiction is that of the perfect mother; the traditional image of a woman brimming with endless tender love who never entertains a moment's negativity (or, indeed, personality)… We seem to have removed the space for women to speak freely and openly about their experiences having and raising babies and children. The result is tremendously harmful. The consequences, for maternal mental health, the mental health of our children, and wider societal health, economics and equality, are appalling." - Marianne Levy, author of Don't Forget to Scream

BBC/AMC adaptation of Adam Kay's bestselling medical memoir, This Is Going To Hurt, which follows Kay's real-life experiences as a junior doctor on an Obstetrics and Gynaecology ward in a British hospital, also came under fire for its traumatic scenes of women giving birth, as well what "positive birth" expert Milli Hill called the "paternalistic, misogynistic attitude" of Kay towards his female patients. But others argued the depiction of the maternal experience was creditable for being uncomfortably real. Times journalist Alice Jones wrote that she "didn't feel angry watching This Is Going to Hurt, I felt glad that someone was telling the truth. Birth can be beautiful, but it's also brutal. What are we going to do about that?"

Culture exploring the darker side of motherhood may also now have an extra resonance at a time when, in the US, some states are intending to remove the constitutional right to an abortion, after the Supreme Court overturned the case of Roe vs Wade. In one harrowing episode of The Baby, we see how the titular child's biological mother – Helen (Tanya Reynolds) – is held hostage and forced to give birth, in scenes reminiscent of The Handmaid's Tale; Robins-Grace explains how differently that scene hits home for her now. "It's sobering to realise that we were naive to believe, in a legislative way, that [abortion] was off the table."

More generally, the fact that current films, TV series and books might shock us and shatter our collective illusions about motherhood is only a good thing, says Levy. "Popular culture finally seems to be waking up to the idea that mothers can be interesting, dynamic characters in their own right, front and centre to the story, with all the foibles and flaws and fascinating facets exhibited by the rest of humanity."

Articles linked within the article:

"The Science of Safe and Healthy Baby Sleep" https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20220131-the-science-of-safe-and-healthy-baby-sleep

"Mumsnet is driving fear of childbirth, expert warns" https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/mumsnet-is-driving-fear-of-childbirth-expert-warns-fztj8qlth

"Motherhood doesn’t have to mean misery Alienation, despair and boredom have become the default depiction of life after children. Where’s the joy gone, asks Rosie Kinchen" https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/motherhood-doesnt-have-to-mean-misery-cbqf3trjt

"I was only being honest: When author Rachel Cusk wrote A Life's Work, her disarmingly frank account of motherhood, she was shocked by the vicious reaction it provoked from other women. The experience forced her to question herself as a writer and a parent, as she records here" https://www.theguardian.com/books/2008/mar/21/biography.women

"Postpartum Post Traumatic Stress Disorder" https://www.postpartum.net/learn-more/postpartum-post-traumatic-stress-disorder/

"Traumatic birth and post-traumatic stress disorder" https://www.nct.org.uk/labour-birth/you-after-birth/traumatic-birth-and-post-traumatic-stress-disorder

"This is Going to Hurt: What medical shows get right and wrong" https://www.bbc.com/culture/article/20220209-what-tv-medical-shows-get-right-and-wrong

"This Is Going to Hurt: misogyny on the maternity ward? Are claims that the BBC’s new hit is hateful towards women correct?" https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/this-is-going-to-hurt-misogyny-on-the-maternity-ward-wqllbj2t9

"Abortion: What does overturn of Roe v Wade mean?" https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-61804777

"Why The Handmaid’s Tale is so relevant today" https://www.bbc.com/culture/article/20180425-why-the-handmaids-tale-is-so-relevant-today

17 notes · View notes