More Than A Magazine, A Movement
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?
Super Happy Fun America’s recent “straight pride” parade in Boston has come and gone—but the ideology that inspired it lingers, and it is not limited to the parade’s homophobia.
What to do about a declining birth rate? Banning abortion, doing away with sex ed, and making birth control difficult to access is one approach. But stripping women of their reproductive autonomy is the very worst response to population concerns.
Women, children and communities thrive when parenthood is a choice that is made freely, and not forcibly.
15 percent of women in the U.S. will reach their 40th birthdays without ever having given birth—but they have given to the children in their lives in significant ways.
I don’t want kids. Never have. I consider birth control the greatest invention of the 20th century and I’ve been taking it religiously for nearly a decade. No pregnancies to […]
