In my Age of Ultron review I had a few things to say about Natasha Romanov, motherhood, and how society treats childless women. Today is Mother’s Day in the USA, and inevitably the Internet is full of posts about motherhood. I’d like to draw your attention to this one from Helen Boyd about the difficulties that childless women, and non-traditional mothers, face on days like this. There’s no one right way to be a mother, or to have a mother, and not conforming to some narrow definition of motherhood does not make you any less of a woman.

It is probably also a good time to point you at this brilliant satirical piece from Beulah Maud Devaney on the things people say to childless women.

Of course the “wide continuum of mothering” that Helen’s piece quotes does leave people out. I don’t know what views Amy Young has on LGBT folks, but her post is centered on religion so sadly I suspect that their omission is deliberate. This post, therefore, is for lesbian and bi women who get told that having children without a man is wrong and selfish; it is for young trans women who know that no matter how good their bodies might look on the outside they’ll always be missing a womb; it is for trans guys who are biological mothers and may or may not see themselves as mothers; and it is for older trans women who have biological children, yet are told that they can never be “mothers” to them.

Motherhood. It is no more simple than anything else in the world.