This will make your blood boil. Do not read if you are feeling fragile.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-2056875/Liz-Jones-baby-craving-drove-steal-husbands-sperm-ultimate-deception.html
This is every thing we are NOT. This woman is deceptive, cruel and manipulative. She claims to be a "feminist" and I frankly can't imagine anyone less of a feminist than her!
This is also our fight. Media representation of broody women is almost entirely negative; either we are manipulating our SO's or we are teary, pathetic and desperate. Where are the representations of the women who struggle? The women who are communicating as honestly and openly as they can with the people they love and fighting every biological impulse?
The comments section is equally demoralising, full of people who are happy to criticise Ms. Jones, while in the same breath only giving examples of women like her. The amount of bile and bitterness from the men is also disheartening, they seem to genuinely believe that all women think like her.
I'm going to close this post before I start adding my own bile to the pot, but we need to be aware of this type of publicity. This is why we can't have these discussions with friends, these are the judgements they will make. In my darkest moments, these are the judgements our SO's make too, but hope they know us better than that.
I was utterly disgusted when I saw that!
ReplyDeleteIT did give me some hope when it was pointed out that she was trying to 'steal sperm' from a condom which are all covered in spermicide - hence why it didn't work.
ReplyDeleteThere is also an interesting rebuttal in The Guardian which focuses on a point I'd completely missed, but I'm glad someone else picked up on - http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/nov/04/mumsy-feminist-liz-jones?fb=native&CMP=FBCNETTXT9038
What I like about the rebuttal is the point that the ability to give birth is the biggest difference between the two basic genders of our species (I say basic as there are an insane number of different genders that can result a wide range of factors but that's a complete digression) - and we, the women, are the one's who haev that ability. Forget worrying about who's taller or stronger or smarter, we can carry new life.
ReplyDeleteWhat frustrated me about the original artical is that it made it sound like all women - even non-babycrazy women - are desperate to have babies or see them as an easy option which I know isn't the case. It also actively encourages male distrust of female motives (which is completely against any feminist scheme, surely, though about what I'd expect from the Mail)