I didn’t use to like pets. Then I had one and now I gush over people’s fur babies. Likewise I never had kids of my own, so rarely made a fuss over other’s infants. Now that my stepdaughter has given my wife and I a grandson, I notice babies a lot more (though none are as cute as our grandson)! Some of us have to grow into an appreciation of the procreative process. Poignant article!
I don't understand this. Was there a time when young people would drop everything in public to look at a baby? I am 43 and can't remember a time I gave a crap about a baby in public, including when I was young. They don't really do anything and most aren't that cute. Yes, I said it. So I am not sure this means anything unless it is being compared to a time young people (not just grandmothers) really cared about a baby showing up in public.
I am the same age and have five kids and can not remember ever senseing what is described here. People at least acknowledge, smile, say awwwww... or something. What she is describing is something I have not experienced. She also makes a much more important observation, that is very true, at the end despite how people may react in one days outing. We have becomes disconnected from others and what it means to be alive, in community, and to perpetuate a species. This is what the technocratic/transhumanists agenda has done to humanity, whether her observations at the store seem accurate to readers or not. We see it in so many aspects of life today.
However it’s not about one experience standing in for everything—it’s about how that experience fits within a broader cultural shift around reproduction and embodiment.
I just don't think the two are related. I agree that removing reproduction from embodiment is wrong, and I legit don't care about a baby coming into a store.
Right!? Now, if a cute toddler waves to me, I smile and wave back, but babies are pretty much useless. I have no idea how to interact with them and am not particularly concerned about it, lol!
The women in the comments who get defensive are the product of a feminism which devalues children & families in favor of female hyper-individualism. Yes to choice, but enough with the pettiness. Personally, I loved this piece. I too get the perspective of the young women who are indifferent/hostile to child bearing, because I used to think the same: as a woman, you’re expected to reproduce and love babies, therefore you shall do everything in your power to oppose that and convince yourself children and burdensome, and even treat with suspicion women who want to have them. It’s a sad, sad sign for our civilization, and unfortunately some women never grow out of that. I remember my parents telling me stories of people stopping them when I was a baby to compliment them. Now people are indifferent or even hostile to kids. As me and my fiancée have been considering having children, I now notice them much more and also see that most mothers (except the online ones who have victim complexes) seem quite relaxed and happy. Thanks for sharing this!
Oh my god, yes! Thank you for saying this so intelligently and eloquently. It's something I've struggled to reconcile at times with my feminism, but motherhood is sacred and uniquely female. Women should always be free to choose when and if they have children, but I do think it's terribly tragic that so many reject the idea altogether. Having kids is the most incredible life experience I can ever imagine. I'm so grateful every day for my babies.
I just don't think other people's babies are all that interesting to people?
Also, there is nothing wrong with valuing your own life and not wanting to reproduce. This comes across as really condescending honestly, like "oh little people, you just don't see yet why your lives are meaningless.." lol
how am I meant to interpret, "It is hyper-individualism: the idea that fulfillment is entirely self-directed, self-contained, and disconnected from continuity.
That model works, for a time. Until it doesn’t.
Because eventually, a life organized only around the self runs into its limits. It cannot explain why anything should continue. It cannot sustain itself beyond a single generation." ?
I didn’t use to like pets. Then I had one and now I gush over people’s fur babies. Likewise I never had kids of my own, so rarely made a fuss over other’s infants. Now that my stepdaughter has given my wife and I a grandson, I notice babies a lot more (though none are as cute as our grandson)! Some of us have to grow into an appreciation of the procreative process. Poignant article!
I don't understand this. Was there a time when young people would drop everything in public to look at a baby? I am 43 and can't remember a time I gave a crap about a baby in public, including when I was young. They don't really do anything and most aren't that cute. Yes, I said it. So I am not sure this means anything unless it is being compared to a time young people (not just grandmothers) really cared about a baby showing up in public.
I am the same age and have five kids and can not remember ever senseing what is described here. People at least acknowledge, smile, say awwwww... or something. What she is describing is something I have not experienced. She also makes a much more important observation, that is very true, at the end despite how people may react in one days outing. We have becomes disconnected from others and what it means to be alive, in community, and to perpetuate a species. This is what the technocratic/transhumanists agenda has done to humanity, whether her observations at the store seem accurate to readers or not. We see it in so many aspects of life today.
I think this is an experience being applied as a pattern where there isn't one.
Fair enough.
However it’s not about one experience standing in for everything—it’s about how that experience fits within a broader cultural shift around reproduction and embodiment.
I just don't think the two are related. I agree that removing reproduction from embodiment is wrong, and I legit don't care about a baby coming into a store.
Okay. Thanks for sharing.
"I legit don't care about a baby coming into a store" gave me a laugh. That sounds exactly like me.
Babies are overrated. 😂🫶
Right!? Now, if a cute toddler waves to me, I smile and wave back, but babies are pretty much useless. I have no idea how to interact with them and am not particularly concerned about it, lol!
The women in the comments who get defensive are the product of a feminism which devalues children & families in favor of female hyper-individualism. Yes to choice, but enough with the pettiness. Personally, I loved this piece. I too get the perspective of the young women who are indifferent/hostile to child bearing, because I used to think the same: as a woman, you’re expected to reproduce and love babies, therefore you shall do everything in your power to oppose that and convince yourself children and burdensome, and even treat with suspicion women who want to have them. It’s a sad, sad sign for our civilization, and unfortunately some women never grow out of that. I remember my parents telling me stories of people stopping them when I was a baby to compliment them. Now people are indifferent or even hostile to kids. As me and my fiancée have been considering having children, I now notice them much more and also see that most mothers (except the online ones who have victim complexes) seem quite relaxed and happy. Thanks for sharing this!
Oh my god, yes! Thank you for saying this so intelligently and eloquently. It's something I've struggled to reconcile at times with my feminism, but motherhood is sacred and uniquely female. Women should always be free to choose when and if they have children, but I do think it's terribly tragic that so many reject the idea altogether. Having kids is the most incredible life experience I can ever imagine. I'm so grateful every day for my babies.
I just don't think other people's babies are all that interesting to people?
Also, there is nothing wrong with valuing your own life and not wanting to reproduce. This comes across as really condescending honestly, like "oh little people, you just don't see yet why your lives are meaningless.." lol
That’s not what I was arguing, but I appreciate you taking the time to read.
how am I meant to interpret, "It is hyper-individualism: the idea that fulfillment is entirely self-directed, self-contained, and disconnected from continuity.
That model works, for a time. Until it doesn’t.
Because eventually, a life organized only around the self runs into its limits. It cannot explain why anything should continue. It cannot sustain itself beyond a single generation." ?
This isn’t saying everyone has to have children. I’m saying a culture can’t treat children as irrelevant and still expect to sustain itself.
but you said "a LIFE organized around." Not, "a culture organized around".