Monday, January 26, 2015

Why you shouldn't have children

In the chapter "Why you shouldn't have children," Caitlin Moran illustrates just exactly how pressing society may be on a young, emerging professional woman. Among the many benefits to having a child, she leads with "Because if you have children, at least people won't keep asking you when you're going to have children." A question Moran believes has many underlying meanings such as when a woman may give up her most creative and ambitious time in life to raise a child rather than focus on her career. This unnecessary outside pressure society puts onto women creates a feeling of uncertainty in women when deciding whether motherhood may even be the right choice for that person. Rather than rush a woman into motherhood because of her uncertainty and predetermined window, Moran states that the benefits of a woman choosing a life without reproduction in a world already becoming overcrowded may be equally, if not more rewarding than motherhood as many opportunities must be turned down for the greater good of the child.

Although I agree with many things Moran states in this chapter, many of her claims have very little evidence to persuade my belief. Rather than giving specific evidence to illustrate how the media has changed the public's view of a woman debating motherhood, she merely states that the question asked is always "'When are you going to have a baby.' Rather than 'Do you want to have kids?'" After all, Lakshmi Chaudhry stated in the article "Men Growing up to be Boys" statistics that chivalry in fact has not died in today's society bur rather in the media alone. Many of her claims are left to our belief in her unaccredited opinion.

2 comments:

  1. I am very pleased with this reading. Moran has so many great points as to why having children is not all a woman should strive for in her life. She explains that she has encountered many situation in her life that are based around women being expected to reproduce. Many act as if a woman's main purpose in life is to create and raise a child because of what their body is capable of. Moran lists many reasons as to why women may not be interested in having a child. "When are you going to fuck it all up by having kids?" Caring for another human takes time and effort out of your already busy life. If a woman rather not have a child and focus on other goals such as her job, traveling or social life she may be known as "selfish" or "as dangerous as teenage boys or men." Media pressures women into having children although the population is already high. I disagree with the last paragraph of Dylan's blog because Moran has plenty of real life experience as to why women should not have children. Being a mother herself she has experienced the downsides of having children, from the lack of free-time to the unorganized, stressful moments. Many other articles may need statistical proof to prove a point, but this passage I do not believe needs that. She has many real life examples that readers are able to relate to easily. She uses successful people as models as to how you can live an enjoyable and fulfilling life without creating offspring.

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  2. I believe that because the context of this selection is more casual rather than scientific or political it is okay that Moran does not incorporate statistical evidence in her argument. However, discussing the environmental effect of reproducing (although this was just briefly mentioned) could be an example of considerably "hard evidence". I believe that Moran's opinion is credited because she is a woman and a mother. She has experienced first hand the pressure of media, for example when her editor "needed" to know when her interviewee was planning on having children. Even though Moran did not care about those such details of her interviewee's personal life, she was forced to ask, her questions and answers then published, and eventually read by others. I think that motherhood is a very human subject and because Moran is a living, emotional, experienced human, her opinion is valid. To further prove her point she discusses the success of Coco Chanel. This is very specific evidence, about a specific person. Overall, Moran’s argument that women should only have children if they want to does depend heavily on her own experiences. I believe that her personal stories are acceptable evidence to support her claims due to the casual and humorous tone of the passage.

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