culture
Book Musings
Psychology
Living the Life Unexpected Takes on New Meaning
Living the life unexpected has become all too startlingly familiar, hasn’t it? Who among us has not felt jolted by the sudden onset of this out-of-nowhere, insidious coronavirus threat to what had been our mostly well-ordered lives and sense of agency? But, from my personally Cloroxed plane seat amid the current pandemic yesterday a spectacular […]
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Changing Perceptions
Fortitude
Childless is a word I detest
Childless. While there is not one thing I like about this word, I am supportive of those who want to draw attention to the social issues surrounding it. What’s behind my dislike of the word? First of all, it comes loaded with baggage. Unkind stereotypes abound. I could find no evidence of the word ‘childful’ […]
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Bioethics
Pop Culture
Biological Clock and the Capitalizing of Fertility Fears
Moira Weigel’s essay in The Guardian, The foul reign of the biological clock, casts new light on a little explored but powerful cultural phenomenon. It also revealed the fertility industry’s long history of capitalizing on fertility fears, with women paying the price. Let’s start with the facts. The term ‘biological clock,’ Weigel explains, was originally […]
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Book Musings
Our Modern Day Betty Friedan Moment
Is this all? Those three little words — Betty Friedan’s simple question — went on to define an era. Her book, The Feminine Mystique, arrived on February 19, 1963. Per The New York Times Back Story: When she wrote the book, Ms. Friedan was a suburban housewife and mother who penned freelance articles for women’s magazines. She had become disillusioned […]
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Guest Post
Male Call: The Head Cannot Heal the Heart
Editor’s Note: When it comes to matters of the heart, there’s nothing quite so comforting and validating as discovering you’re not alone in teasing out complicated emotions. Whether in the blogosphere or in society as a whole male voices are in the minority on the topic of disenfranchised grief. It’s rare to hear men give […]
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Pop Culture
Remembrance
Treasure Trove of Truth: Blogging Infertility
Nine years ago tonight the blog Coming2Terms arrived on the scene. It started with a hesitant point and click … PUBLISH. The blogosphere in 2007 was still relatively new and more than a bit wild and disordered. It seemed the perfect place to explore taboo topics. Discussion about infertility and failed fertility treatment was, indeed, not […]
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Pop Culture
Many Miles Later: Culture, Medicine and Us
In my ‘gentle yoga’ class the instructor began the weekly session as she always does. She asked us to close our eyes and turn inward to focus on our breathing. In a soft voice she encouraged us to explore any places in our body that felt stuck and to direct our breath to those areas. […]
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Book Musings
Choices
Different Than I Expected
Ending Fertility Treatment Equated with Madness?
Halloween may be over, but the chance to really scare the living daylights out of someone remains real 365 days a year. How you ask? Declare that you’re stepping away from the path to motherhood — and to really induce shrieks wave around a copy of Silent Sorority. That will seal the deal. Horrors! Of […]
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Linking Around
Relationships
Invisibility — Seen it Lately?
“The minute you retire, it’s as if you’re invisible.” I had to do a double-take when I read that sentence in an article about how difficult it is to get Stanford profs to make space for younger faculty. What my brain read was “the minute you’re infertile, it’s as if you’re invisible.” Funny thing my […]
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