Matthew Ko ASA 2 A01, week 8

For this week, I decided to read "Mothering Is Liberation: Giving Birth to Alagaan Pedagogy (Pedagogy of Care)", written by Allyson Tintiangco-Cubales. This article was interesting to me because it showed how many female scholars do not gain recognition or applause for working and taking children at the same time. It seems that society automatically labels the roles for all females to be caretakers/mothers before anything else. In the article, Cubales admits how micro-aggression from other coworkers ultimately caused her to feel guilty and to be uncertain of whether she is spending enough time with her kids, her husband, or publishing articles. Instead of admiring her ability to be a scholar and a mother, society views her motherhood as something "normal," rather than a special time of her life. This is further supported when Cubales describes how many people were surprised to hear that she was also a scholar in addition to a mother because people believe that she doesn't have the features of a professor and instead has the image of a mother. Even if there are female professors who are not mothers, they will still be labeled as mothers even though they show a stronger character trait of a professor rather than that of a mother.  This reminds me of the time in lecture where we learned how female scholars are always assumed to be caretakers in addition to teaching because female scholars are expected to innately have the "mom-like" vibe with them. For instance, many female professors are expected to emotionally counsel and mentor their students as well as carrying out their academic job. After reading this article, it made me pose a question inside my head. One question I had was: How come Men don't have the same expectations of being a caretaker? 

Furthermore, I notice how when men have kids, they are actually praised. In fact, I realize my elementary school experience shows how women are more likely labeled as caretaker as men. Throughout my elementary school years, every time I had a permission slip for a field trip, it would say: "mother's signature" instead of "parent." At that time, I never thought too much of why it only states "mother's signature," but I now realize that my elementary school believed that our mothers were more likely to sign our permission slips, which indicates that our mothers play a bigger role in caring for us. Another question I had was: how do we change people’s perspectives so they don’t overlook the importance of motherhood? 

Reference:

Fight the Tower: Asian American Women Scholars' Resistance and Renewal in the Academy, by 

     Kieu-Linh Caroline Valverde and Wei Ming Dariotis, Rutgers University Press, 2020, pp. 350-

     364.

“azquotes.com” [photograph] retieved from: https://www.azquotes.com/quote/701047