Infertility Survivors Finally Heard
Typically, if you want to empty a room, simply say, “infertility.” It works like a charm. Trust me. Infertility realities, long time blog readers know, once dominated my waking and sleeping. Those who have walked in my shoes know well that infertility initially rips through your mind like a meteor. What was that? I might…
Tribalism at its best provides a haven and kinship. Who doesn’t like to feel accepted and validated? Tribalism at its worst, however, fuels misunderstandings, culture wars, and, at the extreme, ugliness. Most of us have witnessed or encountered all of the above. My latest tribal experience stemmed from my participation in Slate‘s podcast, What I…
Egocentrism sure is easy to spot these days. This observation came to me this weekend. It started with a New York Times essay on co-housing initially titled: Is This the Cure for the Loneliness of American Motherhood? As an aside, my fellow blogger and dear friend Sarah discovered the print edition of the paper retooled…
Dilemmas, by their very definition, don’t offer easy or tidy resolutions. Now, toss in some deeply ingrained stereotypes, social and economic pressures, and reproductive siren songs and reckonings. Top it off with a healthy amount of identity sorting. What have you got? A hardy dilemma salad of sorts with some intense and, at times, biting…
Tokenism is an awkward thing to experience. I never fully understood how prevalent it is for childless women, but the penny dropped a few weeks ago. So, it started when a Random House marketing manager sent a ham-handed email. She asked if I’d like to read and share The Trying Game as part of October’s…
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…
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’…
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…
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…
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…