Quite a interesting read. I observe that these cases all reinforce the currency of parenthood; the subjects of these pieces all accept that motherhood is natural and is not out of fashion; in fact it remains the basis for every person who aspire to be a parent – who will hold a baby as his or hers, gay or not.
However, they do challenge the context in which motherhood is realized and the basis on which parenthood is thought to be founded. They serve here to deconstruct the scope attributed to motherhood, for instance, by disassociating it from birthing (surrogating.) They serve to redefine motherhood to be basically nothing more than the care given to a child regardless of the gender of the giver of that care. The surrogate, by legal writ, would by this reasoning lack practical and social right to motherhood claim. If surrogacy eventually becomes a big industry, I suspect that the membership could organize in the future to demand consideration as mothers. This may depend on whether they can make the argument that their gestating and birthing a child really create a psychological feeling of a loss of their motherhood which they may want the law to rectify, perhaps by claiming to have some right to the child they had birthed, though been raised by non-biological parents.
I do not know much medical literature but know about some medical views that generally echoed the traditional wisdom that the pregnancy and birthing (and breast feeding, where and when possible) are very strong socio-psychological factors that bond mothers to their children - much more or in much different ways than a father, even in traditional marriage, can be bonded to his child.
These rising new cases of parenthood would seem to challenge much of this bonding theory; though whether they thereby nullify these theories is not at all clear to me.
Traditional society is no stranger to single motherhood, fatherhood or parenthood, though, it would usually be in the context of divorce or widowhood. In African societies that I am familiar with, though, a child raised by a widow (or in unusual cases by a widower) has a wider circle of immediate kin who provide nurturing than does the single child in developed Western world where the nuclear family, faceless urbanity and extreme individualism have for a longer time been the rule.
As in every society, orphans are not new in Africa and have traditionally been considered as one of the most vulnerable social groups who by default needed be compassionately treated; they have often been fostered with relatives - who could themselves be single moms, they being widows (usually not widowers). Hence, children been raised by other than their biological parents are familiar, though usually not general commonality.
Much of these developments are ascribed to changes and the different new ways in which social groups and the family operate in the modern world. Thus much of what used to be exceptional and fringe under pre-modern conditions are now, under different social, economic and ultimately political contexts (and perhaps religious/philosophical contexts) considered normal. The normalcy and the moving centre stage of what used to be fringe under these new conditions are taken to be good enough reasons that the changes are taken as natural, normal, progressive and the way forward. The changes are what are taken to certify the changes and to legitimize change. The worldview of the day is that change is normal and is the normal condition of things for the better. How realistic is this view – over the long run.
As a historian, I am intrigued by the disdain that the modern world seems to hold for historical continuity. Change is generally associated with development and progress: with democracy and social justice, with technological innovation and scientific creativity. I wonder why continuity is inherently associated with social problems, with everything bad about society; with retrogression. Why is it that come tomorrow, some of the goods and positives and developments of today could all of a sudden disappear from the radar of the researcher or observer who is focused on change once these positives and goods have been wrapped up with the toga of yesterday. In what aspect of human history is it as necessary to hold strongly to continuity as we to change?
To: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com
Sent: Monday, December 5, 2011 1:49:06 AM
Subject: USA Africa Dialogue Series - CNN - The new normal: Stay-at-home Dads, gay parents
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Sent from the CNN App for iPhone
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Hey, check this out from CNN:
The new normal: Stay-at-home Dads, gay parents http://www.cnn.com/2011/11/29/living/the-new-normal-p/index.html?iphoneemail
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