Re: drama examines societal pressure on women to have children Archived Message Posted by Thomas Newfield on August 1, 2019, 4:52 pm, in reply to "drama examines societal pressure on women to have children" Did anyone read that? - Rhetorical question. I'm guessing a lot of you are literalists and don't get my "point" (actually I there are many points, which is why I prefer the above gambits which I think cover a few bases and are funny (though it's less fun to laugh alone)). Personally, I have met many girls in their 20s and 30s and 40s. The big "problem" and "pressure", contrary to the thesis of the various BBC programmes and articles on the subject, has been the desire to have children, against various circumstances pushing women and couples to remain childless. The majority have come to want children and have not been able to have them due to infertility correlating with age. That is: in their 20s they (and their menfolk) have barely considered having children, and the majority have stated (early 20s) they don't want them. When 30 hits they start to "consider" it, but are living in flats, paying rent, "building careers" (getting shafted); are single or unable to maintain a relationship beyond 2 years max; and often still partying like young kids. Time ticks by and fertility decreases until they're 35 and a lot less fertile than at 25 + still in chronic relationship and financial instability. Feeding in to that, alongside the joys of overpopulated cities and neoliberal work patterns, you have this massive social engineering project, one minor theme of which is the supposed "pressure on women to have children (which they don't want)". It makes it harder to keep relationships going when both parties are already making a lot of sacrifices. Then they've gotta take real and often not worthwhile risks in order to have kids. So to have kids they need to sacrifice more, freely (that's Mum and Dad) and if not freely they become resentful, and their relationships fall apart and then they're single mums (usually). Oh joy! Single mums of course are heroic, but usually live in the soup. Another upshot is a lot of beautiful, loving, resourceful women in their 30s who would make excellent mothers and want this desperately. I would argue it's their birthright. But overlapping societal and physical pressures render this impossible, which for most is heart-breaking. Was that any clearer? Message Thread: drama examines societal pressure on women to have children - Thomas Newfield July 31, 2019, 8:21 pm Re: drama examines societal pressure on women to have children - Thomas Newfield August 1, 2019, 4:52 pm The IVF industry .. - Shyaku August 2, 2019, 3:37 am Think of it as part of Mam Gaia's - always pretty ruthless - correction of population overshoots. - - Rhisiart Gwilym August 1, 2019, 7:56 pm PS: Just celebrated the birth of my second great grandchild, Agatha Dorothy, last month. NOM - Rhisiart Gwilym August 1, 2019, 7:58 pm Congrats granpa. I hope you have the future story books ready for her consumption : ) - Tomski August 2, 2019, 10:37 pm   Searching