One of my first thoughts while reading “Mothers” was why Machado chose to create the the story between two women rather than a heterosexual couple. I personally think the author chose this dynamic to challenge traditional gender norms regarding motherhood. In almost all stories about the struggles of motherhood, the power imbalance in the relationship if often due to assigned gender traits. Like the man being dominant and abusive, or absent while the mother is left to endure the abuse for the child’s sake. However this piece challenges that structure. By making the story about two women, the author makes the readers really focus on the aspects of motherhood instead of the gender dynamics. It also shows how the abuse on mothers doesn’t necessarily have to be physical, as you may expect in a toxic heterosexual relationship, because the relationship between Bad and the narrator was insanely abusive but more so on a emotional scale. 

It was also very significant that the roles are almost reversed in this case as Bad, the dominant and manipulative partner was the one that bore the child, yet the narrator was forced to raise it. I think the author purposefully chose Bad to be the one that got pregnant to highlight how sometimes the responsibility of a mother doesn’t necessarily fall to the person that bore it. In fact we see Bad using the fact that she got pregnant to push the child away and excuse herself from having to raise it, instead guilt tripping the narrator into assuming all responsibility. This sheds light to the fact that sometimes motherhood is forced onto a woman, that it may be so unexpected yet the mother is expected to raise it without protest. It also challenges the stereotype that caring traits inherently come to mothers, because we clearly see Bad avoiding all responsibility while the narrator tries her best to raise the child even though she has reservations on weather the child is even hers. 

By creating a non traditional gender dynamic in her story, Machado portrays the deeper complexity of motherhood by making the readers question their preconceived notions on what a mother is, who the role is assigned to, which helps the readers see how a mother deals with the power imbalances and the emotional trauma of raising a child.

This picture portrays the traditional nuclear family dynamic with the mother cooking while the father comes home from work. This often represents the idealized version of motherhood and its nature. I chose this picture because it contrasts with the nuanced idea of motherhood portrayed by Machado’s work.