This paper considers Rineke Dijkstras series New Mothers and Bullfighters in tandem, as works that are often exhibited in the same space and meant to address one another, but never conclusively or persuasively linked together. It is my argument that both series take motherhood as their ultimate subject although only one series directly illustrates it. The photographs are easily comparable on a surface level through their presentation of stereotypical notions of femininity and masculinity as well as physical similarities of exhausted bodies and blood. More subtly though, the works demonstrate that the bullfighters are tropes of manhood defined by their ritualized rejection of the maternal body through the bullfight, an event designed to transform boys in men. Jean-Joseph Gouxs text Oedipus, Philosopher helps expound this idea through his exploration of classical Greek myths that model manhoods reliance on maternal destruction.