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AWE (A Woman’s Experience)

Keywords

mother-daughter relationship dynamics, Greta Gerwig Lady Bird, patriarchy and generational conflict

Abstract

It is a tale as old as time: a mother and daughter, struggling to understand and outdo the other, not realizing the uniformity between them. They are duplicates, coded with the same DNA. The daughter strives to become more than her mother, and her mother watches and witnesses everything that she could have become. It is a battle for power, to be seen and verifiable. They bicker, yell, and cry, often unable to find common ground. Greta Gerwig coined this concept perfectly in her film Lady Bird, where the featured mother and daughter cannot do anything but scream at each other. There is a resounding love between them, yes, but it is drowned out by the dissension. Perhaps there is a Freudian explanation, or maybe the patriarchy has succeeded in penetrating the family unit and pitting the women against each other. Regardless, it is a common theme seen consistently in this relationship. What factors cause mothers and their daughters in Western civilization to fight and bicker more than in other family dynamics?

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