Copper and Solder · 2022

    从看到八孩母亲铁链女的事情时我就开始思考，关于母亲这一角色在社会中的位置和意义。

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    我在豆瓣看到一个帖子说，成为母亲最可怕的一点并不是生产的过程，而是当乳房开始分泌乳汁，当你身体的一部分开始成为另一个人类的食物时，你才觉得能够提供母乳这一功能高过了自身，母亲的身份比自己更重要了。乳房是母乳的容器，子宫是婴儿的容器，母亲是未来的容器。很多时候女性被视作一个妻子，一个母亲，而并非一个人，她作为一个容器的功能受到关注却忽视了一个人自己的本质和内在。

”你觉得母亲的身份对你而言是什么呢？”我这样问我妈妈，令我惊讶的，我妈妈说，母亲只是她众多身份中的一个。她不认同我说的母亲与容器的观点，她说母亲是通道，把新生命带到这个世上，为其输送养分的通道。

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    Ever since I read about the chained woman, I started to think about the role of mother in our society.

I saw a post online saying that the scariest part of becoming a mother is not the labour, but when your breast starts to produce milk. When the product of body becomes food for other human beings, this is when the role and function of a mother exceeding the purpose of the individual. Being a mother starts to become more important than being oneself. The breast is the container for milk, the womb is the container for infant, the mother is the container for future. Oftentimes, a woman is seen as a wife, or a mother, but not an individual. The role of her being a vessel holding things becomes more important than herself and her own content and essence.

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    “What do you think being a mother means to you?” I asked my mom. Surprisingly, she told me, a mother is only one of her many roles. She disagreed with my point of motherhood as a vessel. To her, a mother is a tunnel that brings life to the world, and supply nutrients to the new life. It is not an enclosed container, but a space encouraging fluidity.

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    听了妈妈的话以后，我在乳房碗的乳头处扎了一个孔，让液体可以从乳头流出。不再是乳房碗，而是一个承上启下的通道。我开始思考，是我受外界影响导致看待问题太悲观了吗？是什么时候开始“母亲”在我心中成为了“苦难”的代名词？我对妈妈更加充满敬佩了，在成为母亲这一条路上，她感受到的是生命的神奇和自己身上从未想象过的柔软。她说她是一位心满意足的母亲，这是“愤怒”“激进 女权”的我无法想象的，但也许这才是最好的状态。

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    After listening to my mom, I drilled a hole at the nipple of the bowl, so that liquid can flows out from the bowl. It is no longer a bowl that holds things, but a funnel, a bridge that connect things. I started to wonder, am I being too pessimistic? Since when the concept of motherhood to me becomes synonyms for pain and suffering? In the journey of being a mother, my mom was amazed by the miraculous nature of life and the unexpected tenderness in herself. She said she is a content mom, and this is what I could never imagine before as an “angry””radical” feminist, but maybe this is best place to be as a mother.