According to the Royal Spanish Academy in its latest edition, "mother" means "woman or female animal that has given birth to another being of the same species". The Puleva infant feeding brand does not agree with this definition, so it has just launched the campaign that is a mother, in which it calls for citizen collaboration to change the definition and demonstrate to the SAR what is the true meaning of the word mother.
The definition, built on the most voted adjectives, will be officially presented to the Royal Spanish Academy as a formal request, backed by the total number of signatures collected. The initiative is giving much to talk on social networks, questioning the objective of the campaign by trying to give an emotional meaning to a word whose concrete and universal meaning is technically well defined in the dictionary.
A controversial campaign
The campaign has well-known partners such as Sara Carbonero, Vicky Martín Berrocal, Jesús Calleja, Christian Gálvez and Patricia Montero. The characters contribute to giving visibility to the initiative with "as little as they know mothers" or "my mother is much more than that", which they want to go beyond the brief definition so that the "true meaning of motherhood" is officially recognized.
"Mother": Woman or female animal that has given birth to another being of the same species. Signature at //t.co/llqNiryFpR pic.twitter.com/RkWPjDliIJ
- Puleva (@puleva) November 15, 2016
The reactions have not been expected. There are those who criticize the initiative for the "mother's exit", never better said, of the campaign.
@puleva On the definition of father, which is exactly the same, do you plan to set up a similar campaign? If not, why? pic.twitter.com/F9GKfiXO5O
- Bou (@elsacodelcoco) November 16, 2016
@puleva And what definition did you expect from the SAR? A verse from Machado? Pathetic sales strategy!
- Concha Martinez (@ ConchaMartinez6) November 16, 2016
@puleva I think this does not work like this, @perezreverte has explained many times that the RAE is nothing more than a "notary"
- Trading Motivation (@muchotrading) November 16, 2016
In the RAE dictionary, The word "mother" includes 15 different meanings:
Puleva, meanwhile, wants to change it for a new definition that must be completed with the most voted adjectives by the participants in the collection of signatures. Among them, the most popular are "unique," "strong," "brave," "delivered." What would you say about your mother?
What is intended with the campaign?
That is really the question we ask ourselves who we see quite ridiculous trying modify a purely technical definition and transfer it to the emotional plane to include it in a dictionary.
Who we are children, we know what our mother means for each of us. And who we are mothers, we build our own definition of motherhood every day. A definition that, of course, has no place on a dictionary page. I hope my daughters don't need to go find what I am for them in a dictionary.
It would be absurd to find a definition that fits each one's own conception of his mother. Most of us think of a kind and dedicated being, who provides unconditional love and would do anything for his children, but there will also be those for whom the word mother represents selfishness, cruelty or the worst of memories.
There could be millions of definitions for the word "mother", and also of the word "father." Many may agree on some of them, but it would be unwise for a dictionary to collect a personal definition as universal. Rather than striving to modify a definition, let's work every day to build better motherhood and fatherhood for our children.
