Cloning has been used in science fiction to create uncanny replicas of individuals, particularly women, with a suggestion that the replicas act as uncanny ‘improvements’ of femininity. However, this trend has recently developed to remove paternal influence, allowing women to raise their own clones, acting as mothers to duplicates of themselves. This chapter uses as a case study The Echo Wife by Sarah Gailey (2021) to demonstrate that when father-figures are removed, women more effectively mother themselves. Femme originals take over parental responsibilities, removing clones from a place of oppression defined by men, and into their solo women’s domestic spaces. The mothering of clones allows women to heal patriarchal trauma and experience a self-discovery and self-forgiveness that can only be given by the original-mother without the father present. This chapter demonstrates that clone motherhood replaces the patriarchy-led nuclear family with a femme-only development environment that focuses on self-actualization and redoing a life away from patriarchal influence.

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Mother Yourself: Cloned Women and Paternal Erasure in The Echo Wife by Sarah Gailey

  • Vicky Brewster

摘要

Cloning has been used in science fiction to create uncanny replicas of individuals, particularly women, with a suggestion that the replicas act as uncanny ‘improvements’ of femininity. However, this trend has recently developed to remove paternal influence, allowing women to raise their own clones, acting as mothers to duplicates of themselves. This chapter uses as a case study The Echo Wife by Sarah Gailey (2021) to demonstrate that when father-figures are removed, women more effectively mother themselves. Femme originals take over parental responsibilities, removing clones from a place of oppression defined by men, and into their solo women’s domestic spaces. The mothering of clones allows women to heal patriarchal trauma and experience a self-discovery and self-forgiveness that can only be given by the original-mother without the father present. This chapter demonstrates that clone motherhood replaces the patriarchy-led nuclear family with a femme-only development environment that focuses on self-actualization and redoing a life away from patriarchal influence.