What is the first thing that comes to mind when hearing the word mother? Unconditional love, sacrifice, and maternal instinct are some of the words we are conditioned to automatically think of. Kim Soom’s Women and Their Evolving Enemies takes a bold look at the inherent cruelty behind this image of the self-sacrificing mother.

The author paints a damning portrait of the modern generation that takes for granted the sacrifice of their mothers, all in the name of living a better life than their mothers’ generation. A telemarketer for a home shopping channel decides to live with her mother-in-law so her child “might have the chance to live in a good apartment.” Once they start living together she feels no guilt at treating her mother-in-law like the hired help. One day the mother-in-law realizes that she feels “like a living fossil.” The daughter-in-law also begins to feel insecure in her role as a so-called fabulous mom after she gets fired from her job. She treats her mother-in-law with increasing coldness and grows to resent her entire life.

At first the two were enthusiastic about what they believed would be an efficient and mutually beneficial living arrangement, but as time passes they suffer from a sense that their identities cease to matter. After being fired without notice, the daughter-in-law takes out her anger on her mother-in-law. She thinks nothing of sacrificing another mother so that she can be a good mom to her own son. Both women, however, share a similar fate in that they are mothers that sacrifice themselves for their sons. Unfortunately this is a vicious cycle that will be repeated as long as the modern generation expects their mothers to yield to their own selfish desires.