Daughter of a Mother
essays & images by Allison Theresa
introduction
I sometimes think that I read too many books about daughters with no mothers. In the narrative of myself that I’ve been writing and rewriting since I can remember, my own mother has never fit nicely. She’s too prickly, too particular, too present for a heroine to really find herself.
Of course, this isn’t a problem with my mom but is a problem with how we think about a mother’s place in a daughter’s sense of self. In the stories, the mother is either evil or completely absent. But what of those mothers who are always around? Of those daughters who are like them and also not like them? Of the separate self that requires separation and the shared self that binds them together?
The following are writings about the space needed to grow a body, the ends of things we’ve known since the beginning, and how we wade in the boundaries between our mothers and ourselves to create an identity.
Begin by clicking the image below and images throughout. If you’d rather scroll, you can click here.
