Remember that every son had a mother whose beloved son he was, and every woman had a mother whose beloved son she wasn't.

The lines ask the reader to practice moral imagination across gender and generational lines. Piercy reminds us that every man is someone’s child—once cherished and protected—so violence or contempt toward “sons” implicates mothers’ love and grief. The second turn complicates easy sentimentality: every woman, too, is someone’s child, yet patriarchal cultures often reserve special value for male offspring (“whose beloved son she wasn’t”). The juxtaposition exposes how societies can simultaneously idealize motherhood while devaluing daughters, and it urges empathy that does not stop at the culturally preferred child. The quote functions as a compact critique of gendered valuation and a plea for broader human solidarity.