Motherhood And Sexual Identity

Motherhood is intrinsically bound in sexual identity, as biological motherhood begins with a sexual act. According to Susan (Contratto) Weisskopf, “Intercourse, for the mature woman, is the first mothering activity” (769). Despite this, the divide between sexual identity and motherhood is found within a “pervasive ideology of asexual motherhood” (Weisskopf 768). Weisskopf indicates that this ideology proposes that “good mothers do not have sexual feelings in relationship to children, that good mothers are generally asexual” (768). For Naoe, even the touch of her skin by her own daughter is too much to endure, as Naoe is “[t]oo bitter, too proud to fall into [her] own flesh” (Goto 39). Naoe describes herself as “[e]ighty-five years old and horny …show more content…
This enlightening tale of the yamanba birthing, nurturing, and feeding others is placed at a significant point in Naoe’s journey. Naoe has newfound freedom to enjoy life and explicitly enjoy food; something that she was unable to do for a long time. Like the yamanba smiles as her children dance around her (119), Naoe experiences joie de vivre when devouring the euphoric meal at the Ruby Restaurant (146-48). The yamanba’s tale is akin to Naoe’s eating for herself, yet stating, “I eat for Muasaki. I eat for Keiko” (148). As the yamanba sucks up water in order to nourish her children, Naoe devours food so she may ‘eat’ and thus figuratively ‘feed’ her daughter and granddaughter through her experience. Naoe’s actions, emblematic of breastfeeding, blurs divisions between mother and child, between the ‘nourisher’ and the nourished; as Naoe eats, she simultaneously feeds. Carole Counihan emphasises that “women are food to the fetus and infant, and the breasts can be sources of both sexual pleasure and food” (Aoyama 6). Correspondingly, Weiskopf