Textual Poaching: An Identity Remix

I chose to make a commentary on the identity of motherhood. Above, you have the original painting that shows the classic view of motherhood.  There's a mother with six or seven kids, lovingly making dinner while the father is away.  The kids are well attended to, and it seems she's learned everything she can from her own mother who sits nearby. In the second image, there are a few more modern things. The mother is now expected to be educated, not have as many children, the kids need to be up to date with technology, the mother might not have time to make a fancy meal from scratch, but she should still provide some kind of dinner... She is still expected to be in the home, but she's also expected to help provide for the family. There's a list of societal expectations for the woman that take up the image, and while every one of them is an expectation, some of them are complete opposites of each other.  It's impossible to be the perfect wife and mother according to the standards of society.   You're loved if you're traditional in your conduct (stay at home, lots of kids, great cook and keep a house), but you're weak if you go this route.  However, if you are the modern woman (have a great career, little to no kids, enjoy being independent) then you are too bold and radical.  Women can't win. This is a complicated identity. For me, I love the traditional way of motherhood. I love making meals from scratch, look forward to taking care of my own kids, and would love to stay home and raise a family.  However, since I don't have a child yet, I'm expected to gain an education, be independent, yet still clean, cook, and do typical household chores on top of it all as well. Oh, and we have to look good while doing it, because we're girls. By creating the second image, I hope to depict just how unrealistic societal expectations are.  They take up the whole picture, and we somehow let them. There needs to be a way to combat these expectations and be confident in the things we do as women.

I think it's important to help students create their own mixed media.  It opens their eyes to issues they are passionate about and can contribute to changing if a change needs to happen. A teacher has the ability to introduce a topic, and guide a student through their exploration of that topic.  From our reading, I liked that the students got to choose their own topic to expand on. It encourages critical thinking, especially as the teacher asks followup questions.  In my own process, I was able to identify a topic, research images that depicted it, then explore a new editing software to achieve what I wanted to do.  I researched the societal expectations of women and incorporated general ideas with my own in the image.  It was more than just a simple edit and took thought and effort.  I think students would benefit from doing similar projects.  It's a great way to mix the more traditional things with modern things they easily relate to.