More Than A Magazine, A Movement
Following former President Donald Trump’s election victory, Google searches related to 4B—a fringe South Korean feminist movement that made a name for itself in the mid to late 2010s—surged in the United States.
It’s called “4B” because “B” is a shorthand for the word “no” in Korean—and a series of “nos” is what the movement calls for: No sex. No dating. No marrying men. No children.
“Young men expect sex, but they also want us to not be able to have access to abortion. … They can’t have both.”
The collective female rage in response to JD Vance using the “childless cat lady” archetype as an insult is driven by shared hurt at the mockery that reduces us to our reproductive capacity in a political context where women are already devalued. It demeans our dreams and aspirations outside motherhood. It seems small, but those three words carry so much emotional weight for us.
The fight is exhausting and there will come a time when I stop. But I pray that other women fight. All of us—intentionally childfree, mothers, delayed in motherhood, deprived of motherhood, stepmothers, more—certainly have a stake in the future: a hope that we may be cherished, not for the services our bodies offer men and society at large, but merely for our humanity and the women we are.
Americans with children are more likely to be unhappy, compared to people without children.
The two policy issues that could immediately alleviate stressors on U.S. families: paid leave and universal childcare. But Republican lawmakers are standing in the way.
Nearly 20 years ago, social scientists Bella DePaulo and Wendy Morris described the prejudice, stereotyping and discrimination toward singles. Since their article, the number of single households has only been growing.
Single people serve their communities, have meaningful careers, benefit their families as aunts and uncles and are active participants in their faith communities. Do not use us to get attention on the news, and do not forget about us when you make policy.
More than 300 years after the Salem witch trials, a class of middle schoolers helped exonerate the sole remaining woman legally classified as a witch.
Originally expected to be a simple class project, the path to clearing Elizabeth Johnson Jr.’s name took three years and the help of a Massachusetts state senator, Diana DiZoglio (D). Unwed women were viewed with suspicion at the time of the trials, and many individuals convicted were later exonerated by their own descendants. With no descendants to clear her name, Johnson’s wrongful conviction remained in place—making her the last remaining witch in Salem history—until Carrie LaPierre’s class came to her aid.
Filmmakers Annika Hylmö and Dawn Green tell this story in their upcoming documentary, The Last Witch.
The following poems of resistance are written by five poets who identify as women or once did. These poems are about our lives, our mothers and grandmothers, our younger selves and changing selves. The myths, lies and abuse we were raised on. Our beauty and our truths, our lovers and marriages, children and childlessness. The particular deals we make with our lives and “the true honey of freedom.”
Our poetry and stories—our songs—bring us together, remind and ignite us, and make us strong.
A biological pull, no matter how powerful, is not an imperative. In fact, while there is surely the possibility that I will one day regret not having had a child, there is an equal possibility that I would regret having had one—a possibility so terrifying that our failure to warn young people of its existence (just Google “I regret having children,” and be prepared for a ride) seems grossly negligent.
Earlier this month, Pope Francis once again called childless couples “selfish,” extolling the virtues of parenthood as essential to the human experience and sparking a significant backlash. Thank goodness, then, that there’s the perfect film waiting in the wings to counter this baseless claim: award-winning filmmaker Therese Shechter’s newest documentary, “My So-Called Selfish Life.”
World Contraception Day—September 26—was conceived (no pun intended) to improve awareness of all forms of contraception and help people make informed choice about their sexual and reproductive health. In honor of this important day, I interviewed women of multiple generations about their choice to be child-free.
Past patterns and emerging evidence suggest we are going to see a COVID Baby Bust. After all, it’s hard to think about having another child when you are worried about taking care of the child you already have.
But how long will it last and how big will it be?
