Raven mother

Raven mother is a German animal metaphor that, as a dirty word or swear word ( dysphemism ), demeans a mother who neglects her children from the speaker's point of view. The term is particularly used for working women who allegedly do not care enough for their children.

origin

The German term 'raven mother' is first proven in 1350 when Konrad von Megenberg used it for mothers and the term 'raven parents' was used by Konrad Bitschin in 1433 . Mother's love or parental love is represented as a sense of duty via the insult or swear word . Even Luther used the term when he the Old Testament (Book of Job, 38, 41) translated and interpreted accordingly.

The term is still one of the swearwords in German society's stock of topics.

The expression probably goes back to the observation that young ravens , like young starlings, appear very clumsy on the ground after leaving the nest and were judged to be left to themselves too early. Young ravens are nests , but leave the nest of their own accord before they are able to fly . It is therefore a fallacy that ravens are not caring parents. The parent birds actually feed the begging young birds for a few weeks and warn and protect their young from predators.

The opposite of the dirty word of the bad parents is the term of the helicopter parents . The opposite of the female stereotype of the bad mother is that of the mother hen , a mother who is sometimes overprotective. They are among the numerous terms that mark deviations from ideals or models of parenting in Germany as an inadequate level of care.

use

The term “bad mother” is often used to criticize the mother's excessive absence and insufficient closeness to her children.

Heinrich Heine used the term on his fatherland: "We, I mean Germany, the old raven mother", (in: Reaction to the death of Carl Leberecht Immermann , Werke, Volume IX, p. 162 f., Ed. Karpeles).

Today the term is also used for mothers who separate partially or permanently from their children in some other way, for example giving them up for adoption. It is not uncommon for working mothers to be polemically referred to as bad mothers.

Often this is also linked to a question of gender roles (cf. femininity , masculinity ). The term is criticized in feminist linguistics because old role models would be perpetuated through its use . The SPÖ women in Styria have been organizing a “Rabenmuttertag” since 2002, on which atypical women's occupations are discussed.

Metaphorically , Raven Mother is used in a variety of ways in the media and everyday language . Example: "The alma mater - a bad mother?" (Headline of the idw on January 7, 1999 for a "Day of Young Scientists" at the University of Trier as part of the doctoral center project)

Analogous and related terms

Analogous to the raven mother , the expressions raven father and raven parents exist . They are used less often. This may be due to the fact that, according to traditional gender roles, mothers are more expected to look after their child or children.

Rabenmutter is one of the words in the German language that has no conceptual equivalent in most other languages. The American English knows the pejorative expression deadbeat dad or deadbeat mom for fathers or mothers who have no economic hardship and quite deliberately for their children no maintenance pay.

In Mexico, the literal translation Mama Cuervo has an almost contradicting meaning: It describes a loving mother who puts the positive aspects of her children in the foreground.

Individual evidence

1. ^ Gabriele Scheffler: Swearwords in the subject stock of a society . Marburg 2000, ISBN 3-8288-8172-6 .
2. ↑ Christine Färber: Work-life balance for women doctors . In: Susanne Dettmer, Gabriele Kaczmarczyk and Astrid Bühren (eds.): Career planning for women doctors . Springer, Berlin 2006, ISBN 978-3-540-44521-0 , pp. 279-294.
3. ↑ Astrid Schreyögg: What favors the professional inequality of women and men in Germany? In: Organizational Consulting, Supervision, Coaching . 18, No. 4, December 2011, pp. 471-478. doi : 10.1007 / s11613-011-0259-4 .
4. ↑ Claudia Opitz : Feeling of duty. On the coding of motherly love between the Renaissance and the Enlightenment . In: Ingrid Kasten (Hrsg.): Cultures of feelings in the Middle Ages and early modern times . Stuttgart 2002, ISBN 3-476-01908-X , p. 158.
5. ^ Manfred Günther : Dictionary youth - age . Berlin 2010, p. 96.
6. ^ Gabriele Scheffler: Swearwords in the subject stock of a society . Marburg 2000, ISBN 3-8288-8172-6 .
7. ^ Désirée Waterstradt: Process-Sociology of Parenthood. Nation-building, figurative ideals and generative power architecture in Germany . Münster 2015, ISBN 978-3-95645-530-8 .
8. ^ Federal Institute for Population Research : Familienleitbilder. Does everything have to be perfect? Guiding principles for parenthood in Germany . Wiesbaden 2015. ( Memento of the original from January 6, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
9. ↑ See the description of the term for example with the author Edmundo Cerna in: Edmundo Cerna: Contradicciones. Bloomington / Indiana 2014. p. 263, ISBN 978-1-4633-6033-7 or in the Mexicobob blog or in a Mexican Yahoo forum or in the familias.com portal