Ruddick in Maternal Thinking: Towards a Politics Essay

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Ruddick

In Maternal Thinking: Towards a Politics of Peace, Sarah Ruddick uses mothering as a metaphor for political maturation. The argument remains potently ironic, as Ruddick vehemently denies that motherhood decries militarism and in fact claims just the opposite. "Maternal thinking is often militarist," because of the biologically programed function of motherhood as the state of readiness to protect the offspring (Ruddick 136). Ruddick's concept of peace is unique because peace is not framed as the absence of war. This of course makes Ruddick an ironic realist. Gandhi's organized civil disobedience is a form of militarism that is grounded in peace politics. It is paradoxically possible to be both peaceful and militaristic. Doing so is, according to Ruddick, the only means by which to have a transformative politics of peace.

Moreover, Ruddick claims that rationalism has its limits, and that mothering allows for a more nuanced and practical approach. This means that Ruddick does fall into the trap of gendered binaries, even while denying doing so. Ruddick claims that motherhood is not necessarily a female dynamic even if it is a feminist one, and that hyper-rationalism and dominance are not purely masculine even though these are set forth as the fundamental tenets of patriarchy.

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Because it can be difficult to defend feminism as a legitimate political philosophy, Ruddick tries to link her theory with that of Gandhi. Gandhi might not have been a feminist, but he was a pacifist whose methods can be described in terms of the core features of mothering. For Ruddick, these core features are nurturing, protecting, and training. Nurturing provides the necessary sustenance of the people, protecting provides for the common defense against enemies, and training entails preparedness for the realities of the world. All of these functions of motherhood do not preclude the use of violence, even though Ruddick affirms that motherhood is or at least can be a peaceful state.

Throughout the book, Ruddick acknowledges that motherhood has a militarist side to it. Ruddick's view is revolutionary because it embeds the reality of peace within a universal and realistic framework. "Peace, like mothering, is sentimentally honored and often secretly despised," (137). By this, Ruddick means that there is a confrontational aspect to motherhood, because it subverts injustice, inequity, and subordination. Ruddick occasionally reverts to the use of motherhood as a synonym for feminism, which is in a way cheating, but generally the author manages….....

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