Control of women's sexuality and fertility has been the key to patriarchal power. In modern western society, the option of not wanting to be a mother has only recently become normalised. After not a few struggles and not a few failures and setbacks, finally, starting in the 1980s, women won the right to not be mothers, putting an end to the idea of motherhood as the natural purpose of all female bodies.
So while historically motherhood began as an absolute truth, as a complement to natural law, today –although not everywhere– it is now a freely-made personal choice. And this has been thanks to the fight for the right to have control of their own bodies undertaken by so many of those who have come before us.
No. And why? When the answer is given with a negative, it is invariably followed by a question which is judgmental in itself, asking for an unnecessary explanation for saying "no" to a biological privilege, that of having a bulging, fertile belly, which has also become a social pressure, another demand that women face, added to the aesthetic and professional demands. The reply to the imposition of motherhood, the sole purpose of all female bodies for centuries, has been to rebel. Against the accusing fingers protruding from the sleeves of the black cassocks that turn freely-made decisions into sins. Against the men who have bestowed on themselves the power to pass judgement on a body that does not belong to them. Against the laws made by men, women raise their arms demanding the right to decide for themselves. Abortion is a right, a choice, and not the stigma it is currently seen as. Just as not conceiving is. And in both cases, we still need to don a mask. Society justifies this "no" to motherhood as a renunciation, an incapacity, a circumstance that has prevented women from attaining the ideal of complete womanhood. Women who are not mothers must have reasons that prevent them from being mothers. Non-mothers by choice are women who do not fit in the picture, who do not meet the hegemonic stereotype. It is taboo, it is disturbing.
Gemma Busquets Ros
Members of the Arran group climb the church of Santa Maria del Mar to protest against the reform of the abortion law, Barcelona
Albert Salamé
2014
El Punt Avui archive. CRDI
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