We Are Animals: Essays on the Nature and Politics of Motherhood (Trinity University Press 2024) by Jennifer Case is a collection of essays containing sharp observations and poignant revelations about what it means to be a mother, or child-bearing mammal, in today’s society. Case explores the many ways in which women, when faced with pregnancy, must surrender their bodies to the mentally, physically, and emotionally brutal process of, to use her analogy, being broken apart and reassembled again.
The author gives voice to those who bring life into this world under a mountain of stress, undergoing inevitable loss of control in the process. Mothers reading this will feel seen and heard, and those who cannot know this experience will have their eyes opened and preconceptions challenged.
Woven together with beautifully written personal stories and reflections, these essays cover topics ranging from birth experiences and trauma, to prenatal depression, to the challenges of breastfeeding, to unplanned pregnancy, and includes deep examinations of the flawed medical institution and current political issues our country faces today. Case includes academic research and interviews to inform her views and educate her readers.
Appropriately, the author begins with the birth of her first child. She describes, like many women, the way she had envisioned childbirth to be––uncomplicated, natural, peaceful––contrasted to what actually took place when she stepped through the hospital doors. There she encountered dangerously high blood pressure, labor induction, and loss of control over her own being. Still, in the midst of chaos, Case marvels at the feeling of letting her “animal self” take over. As someone who had grown used to guarding her emotions and fearing loss of control, it was both difficult and strangely empowering. She reflects, “When we let go of the need to control our physical and emotional selves, does the world around us disappear? Or do we simply become part of something larger?” And then, “My body had claimed me, and the only thing I felt was power.” She uses the stunning illustration of falling asleep in the park, giving in to its warmth, utterly vulnerable, and yet surrounded by people.
One relatable topic Case touches on well on is the isolation factor of motherhood. She notes the cultural shift from communal support, the “it takes a village” mentality, to our modern era where individual families fend for themselves, far from familial support and often without anyone with whom to share their burdens. In isolated homes, lonely and sleep-deprived new mothers are more often relying on online communities to validate their experiences and satisfy their basic need for human interaction. In this age of anxiety, many mothers worry ceaselessly about how their changing bodies and choices in infant care will be perceived by others. Case rightly points out that it’s often easier to retreat from the public in those fragile months, depicting having a newborn as being a person “wrapped in a cocoon, trapped by the need to feed it and care for it.”
While certain subject matter covered is politically sensitive and even challenging to read, such as Case’s journey through conceiving a second child she had already decided against and the mental health struggles that followed, she tackles it with unapologetic candor.
With no shortage of evocative images and bare, raw admissions, Case beautifully confronts the question of how women are to honor and love what their animal bodies are capable of doing without becoming constrained and trapped by it in today’s world, while also pointing out the beauty in the ordinary, everyday miracle of motherhood.
Jennifer Case
Jennifer Case teaches creative writing at the University of Central Arkansas. She also serves as an assistant nonfiction editor at Terrain.org and is the supervising editor of Arkana. She is the author of Sawbill, and her work has appeared in Orion, the Sycamore Review, and Fourth River. She lives in Central Arkansas.
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