A bag of green apples

Mommy-mania has been an easy sell to the American public-- not only from academia ("fertility rates are plummeting!") but from the mass media ("bump watch!"). And, channeling our grandmotherly instincts, we follow stories and pore over photos of expecting and newly-minted mothers.

But how is she (the eponymous Mother) portrayed?

She is a goddess, pleased with herself and full of secrets. She has fulfilled her womanly duty with pride, and yet is still an object of desire. She has folded a new dimension into herself: she is decorative, but nurturing. 

There are a number of excellent books and articles discussing the modern mother trend, and far be it from me to completely cover the subject here. I'm focusing on a trend (either real or projected) that has been woven through the surface of media coverage (the magazine covers, the homepage links, the gossip show promos) which takes women who are full of life and personality and breaks them down into one mysterious Mother image. To illustrate, I give you two incredibly brief case studies: Angelina Jolie and Katie Holmes.

I'm not going to delve into the details of their personal tabloid lives-- they are who they are, and have made their own choices (really, Tom Cruise?). But it seems as though, starting with their pregnancies, both women have become joyless faces serving time in Motherhood: they barely smile, merely looking up through their eyelashes, chin buried in chest, submissive and secretive about their strange Mommy power. I'm sure do actually smile on occasion; would it be so hard to show the person inside the mother for a change?

Here is Angelina Jolie during her PDA-heavy relationship with Billy Bob Thorton:

and here's an old, solo picture:

But now, she's always shown with the same expression:

or:

Exhibit B: Katie Holmes, many moons ago:

her hedonistic, pre-Scientology days:

until her immaculate transformation into Mother:

Other:

and general Arm Candy:

Perhaps it's some sort of evolutionary reflex-- once you bear children, you stop showing your teeth when you smile. It's a sign of aggression.