When PhysioProf said in an off-topic comment on a previous post — a post which, though it contains words, is fairly devoid of philosophic value, hence, one assumes, PP’s inclination to suggest a more tantalizing tangent — “Hey, TF, what’s your take on the fucking octuplets?” I said to myself, “Twisty,” I said, “what is your take on those fucking octuplets?”
I used that cuss word because PhysioProf’s pottymouth is contagious. Blamers like TwissB give me shit for using “fucking” as an adjective, averring that it is unseemly for a radical feminist to resort to expletives describing dudely actions that degrade women, but goddammit, TwissB, I’m only sub-human. In the post-patriarchal utopia, there will be no dirty words degrading women, because women will be human then.
But I digress.
I have consulted myself, and here is my much-anticipated take on the fucking octuplets.
All this shit about whether it is “ethical” for poor, single women to have litters of babies is a red herring. What’s really going on here is “Hey, let’s rip on this mentally ill woman because she has appropriated her personal uterus to flout social convention!”
Before this goes any further, let me briefly recap the official Twisty position on human reproduction of any kind. It is this: there can be no justification, under the present conditions of an already unsustainable human population, looming catastrophic climate change, peak oil, inequitable access to resources, caste systems, religious delusions, and all other aspects of the megatheocorporatocracy, for having any kids at all.
It would be nice if people listened to me, but they don’t, so you can count on women, whose reproductive functions are owned by both the state and whatever cultural conditioning they happen to have internalized, to have babies all the time. Likewise, you can count on this:
Whether it’s one kid or eight, once the placenta is buried (or eaten — yipes!) women are reviled. They get isolated in nuclear family situations. They suffer postpartum depression. Child-rearing is unpaid, low-status work. They can’t advance in the workplace. They are denigrated as “soccer moms” or MILFs. It’s a crap deal.
But I digress again. The conditions under which a woman may become pregnant and undergo childbirth are rigidly monitored by the megatheocorporatocracy; these conditions are entirely rooted in keeping a firm hand on the sex class. You must be married to a man, have money and religion, and submit to medical authority. Also, you may only spawn one or at the most two babies at a time, and you must stop spawning when you’ve reached your community’s ick-saturation point — any more than three or four, for example, begins to make you look weird. The slightest deviation is aberrant — for instance, if you’re a pregnant teen slut, or you want to bring an “abnormal” fetus to term, or you want an abortion, or you have a glass of wine while pregnant, or you want to eat your placenta with fava beans and a nice chianti, or you’re a single woman seeking in vitro, or you’re on the dole, or you’re queer, or you already have 6 kids, or you have no money, or you’re a single woman with 6 kids and no money having wine and octuplets — bada-boom! The cold claw of community censure claps you upside the head, and people write blog posts on whether you should be allowed to mingle in polite society.
On PP’s blog, a commenter suggested that the octuplet mother, as punishment for having an abnormal number of babies simultaneously, be barred from enjoying any of the bling lavished upon her by fascinated citizens; it should all go to pay back society for the incredible strain her aberration has placed on it, and she should “never see a dime of it.”
The acceptable conditions for motherhood are disingenuous bullshit. If you’re going to allow single births, what’s the diff if some woman has octuplets?
But she can’t afford eight babies! She’s got six kids already! She’s irresponsible! She’s crazy!
Big whoop. Irresponsible crazy poor women with six kids have babies all the time. The only difference is, nobody’s deathly concerned about their health, or putting themon TV all day long.
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