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Mothers Condensed News Cartoons (Original Post) KS Toronado 5 hrs ago OP
All great. SergeStorms 4 hrs ago #1
So Sweet malaise 4 hrs ago #2
This is very special. murielm99 4 hrs ago #3
Whoa, this collection was a real mixed bag for me. intheflow 3 hrs ago #4
American commercialism has done that to al(most all) holidays... Wounded Bear 3 hrs ago #7
But this was very specifically done by Congress. intheflow 3 hrs ago #10
Thank you KS for remembering all us moms ❤️ Clouds Passing 3 hrs ago #5
This message was self-deleted by its author niyad 3 hrs ago #6
So nice! Thank you! mountain grammy 3 hrs ago #8
Who is cutting onions ? My Mom was not good off & on irisblue 3 hrs ago #9
Thank you for the Mothers Day cartoons LetMyPeopleVote 5 min ago #11

intheflow

(30,234 posts)
4. Whoa, this collection was a real mixed bag for me.
Fri May 8, 2026, 09:53 AM
3 hrs ago

I love the cartoons about forced motherhood, kids hugging stressed out moms and making breakfast for them. I hate the stereotypes, sexism, and... misleading (for lack of a better word) in some of the cartoons.

I didn't like:
* the sappy, Hallmark card of platitudes showing three sets of (white) hands, talking about mothers as nurturers, caring, loving. Not all mothers are like that, and this was illustrated well in another cartoon in the read where it acknowledged some mothers are (Black) "Baltimore mothers," who are tough as nails. That's a more realistic representation of mothers everywhere.

* the military mom getting a Mother's Day package from her kids. This one wouldn't have bothered me if it weren't for the fact that our military in Iran aren't getting their care packages from home these days.

* the sexist stereotypes of women having to go to the doctor for eating their husbands' cooking, or the mother nagging her adult son to clean up after himself after he brought her flowers, or the father telling his kid that making his bed is a great gift for his mom.

Mostly I'm just bitter that a holiday that arose after the Civil War, to promote peace so "mothers wouldn't ever have to suffer their sons being lost to war again" was turned into a sentimental slop of a day that gives platitudes to mothers while we also culturally deny (or seek to deny) them access to safe and legal reproductive healthcare, voting rights, and interstate travel.

https://womenshistory.si.edu/blog/history-mothers-day-global-peace-greeting-cards

intheflow

(30,234 posts)
10. But this was very specifically done by Congress.
Fri May 8, 2026, 10:41 AM
3 hrs ago

Even more specifically, by an all-white, all-male Congress in 1914. It's not the commoditization of the holiday, it's the removal of its peace message, including changing the day and month of the holiday, to make it about sentimentality and divorce it from any antiwar message. Consider the time period: one of the most popular songs of the day, first published in 1911, was "I Want a Girl Just Like the Girl That Married Dear Old Dad." Literally, a song about men wanting to marry their mothers. During the rise of the Suffragettes, menfolk worked hard to romanticize motherhood, promote motherhood, and brainwash women that being on a pedestal with babies underneath them is so much better than voting.

Response to KS Toronado (Original post)

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