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Reader's Response - Motherhood: Who Needs It?

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?Kellie Phillips Laura Nowocin English 1100 October 2014 “Motherhood: Who Needs It?” Reader Response Asking who needs motherhood is a bit of an understatement, in my opinion. Instead we should go deeper into it. What needs motherhood and why? Is it people, males, females, society or the planet as a whole? In the essay “Motherhood: Who Needs It?” written by Betty Rollin in 1970, I find so many unanswered questions and issues and my goal now is to find the answers to them. What is motherhood? Why exactly do, or don’t, we need the myth? Should it even be considered a myth at all? How does it affect us in todays society? The “motherhood myth” is a little outlandish though I can see where she’s coming from. The myth, as Rollin states, is “the idea that having babies is something that all normal women instinctively want and need and will enjoy doing”(286). It is true that the concept of motherhood is pushed on females from a very young age, when they are bought pets and babydolls to take care of while the boys are bought video games and sports gear on holidays. It is embedded in our minds as females that caring for others & starting a family is our job. However, not every female in the world was raised up to believe that having a family and raising children is something that they should want, need, or enjoy doing. Not everyone was brought up the same and many parents bring their daughters up to believe the exact opposite as far as having kids and starting a family goes, simply so they wont be curious or make mistakes later on in life due to being too eager to start a family. I am a part of that category so I couldn’t relate to this article much. My mother never blew up the topic of having kids or being around or taking care of them, though she constantly did. Where is the myth and the argument for those like me, who weren’t brought up on the “myth” that Rollin speaks of? I feel as though Rollin contradi

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