Combatant mothers or the affirmation of the figure of the “good mother”

Abstract

This article presents an analysis on women, who being mothers “opted” to enrol with the United Self-Defence Forces of Colombia, the majority of them turning into “labourers of war” in order to fulfil their maternal function of securing the survival of their offspring. They are combatant mothers, who went to war to fight for their children, sacrifying their own life for that other being that once was a part of her. I try to show that those combatant mothers do not transgress the norms of hegemonic maternity. Nonetheless they transgress the gendered stereotypical vision considering women to be essentially “peaceful”. But they are not really transgressors to the ideals associated with motherhood, seen fundamentally as essence, as a biological and individual fact. Finally, I propose to revise motherhood in a (post)conflict society, such as Colombia.