Pregnancy in Entertainment

[Neoma]

Is Drew Barrymore pregnant? *Gasps!* Oh my god, it would effect my life to know this! Let me know about Jennifer Aniston's stomach bump! Let's obsess about possible pregnant women we honestly shouldn't care about. Even if these women have all ready been through pregnancy, let's start rumors again!

Sure, we all like juicy gossip to a certain extent. But this depiction of women has been rehashed to death. If you think about it, it gives the message of: if they're not pregnant, watch out! She might be soon! As though they are ticking bombs going to explode at any minute. Let me state: I really think that I don't care for the entertainment industry. Problem is, it effects you and the society around you. Who in the United States, hasn't heard about any of these series/trilogies: Spiderman, Shrek, Back to the Future, Star Wars, The Matrix, Harry Potter or the Lord of the Rings. If you have heard of movies, you're very likely to have seen at least one, even if it's not listed above.

Women who are married are asked if they want kids, even by strangers. When I gained weight, a friend of mine asked twice if I was pregnant and said, "Oh that's a shame." When I said no both times. So, I have peer pressure by even my female friends. It can also affect whether or not you get a job if everyone around considers this an issue. Though, no one comes right out and says it (usually.) How does this affect women who do not want to get pregnant, who can't get pregnant? My attitude thus far as been, oh look! People who want to have what I can't have or don't wanna have. Repeat this reaction a few hundred times, and you get sick of it. It's about the same as when I wanted to gain weight and could only find articles on losing weight. It's just not very helpful, and overdone.

[mzteris]

1. I thought your thread said

Pregnancy IS Entertainment . . .

and I wondered what you were smoking!

[HockeyMom]

2. I had two daughters

Do you know how many people, including family, asked when we were going to "try" for a boy. First of all, what is wrong with DAUGHTERS? That is actually what my HUSBAND would say to people. We wanted two, and ONLY two kids. It didn't matter what their gender was, although we BOTH (truth) did actually LIKE having only daughters.

My husband got a vasectomy (agreed upon before our marriage) after our 2nd child was born.

[kdmorris]

5. Same here

Except for the support from/with your husband. My (now ex) husband wanted to keep trying until he got a boy. So I have 3 daughters. After my last daughter was born, I got out of there.

About 16 years after I left him, he (at the at of 42) married an 18 year and had another girl. Luckily, that little girl was removed from the home and put up for adoption. (My daughters have not seen him since 1996 and consider my (current) husband of 14 years their father).

I love having daughters (though having a 17, 15 and 13 year old at the same time led to some interesting days around here!!)

[tammywammy]

10. I have an aunt & uncle that "tried" for a boy

They ended up with 5 daughters.

[kdmorris]

3. This seems to be something like the "all women are breeding machines"

mentality. Right after I got married, everyone was asking when we were going to have children (I was 17). It was like... marriage = babies. When I did get pregnant, perfect freaking strangers would walk up to me and touch my stomach and laugh at me when I got offended. That's STILL MY STOMACH...

Everyone acts like babies and babymaking are their business somehow...

[gkhouston]

4. I have a childless friend, divorced now, who was married for several years.

After the umpteenth, "So you don't have children?" enquiry at parties, her husband affected a tragic look and said, "the state took them."

And the inevitable, "so are you going to have another?" if you do have kids. I got that after my daughter was born. All I could think was, "I'm forty, I've just had two days' worth of labor, and my preemie is still in the hospital. Oh yeah, I'm gonna get knocked up again right now."

[REP]

6. I'm Childfree, twice sterilized, and 47. I STILL hear that "you'll change your mind"

I realized - fully and truly - at age 9 that motherhood wasn't for me. I've never had doubts, not even for a moment. I have actually been harassed about it at one of my jobs (Do you have kids? No. When are you going to - your time is running out. Never; I don't want any. You don't want any because you can't love anyone besides yourself! You are an evil woman! etc). Strangers have felt compelled to question me on this, especially when I was younger.

When my mother married in 1963, her gyno tried to send her to a shrink because she wasn't pregnant within months of her marriage. (I showed up 14 months later.)

[gkhouston]

7. The child-free woman I was talking about upthread?

Both she and her husband had/have dysfunctional families and thought that it would be a stinkingly bad idea to have kids and pass along their issues. I had another girlfriend, in college, who had hell's own time trying to find a doctor willing to tie her tubes because she was only 19. Some people don't want kids, and I find that self-knowledge to be a laudable thing. As a parent, I see people every day who should never have had children and I wish they'd had more self-awareness.

[REP]

16. I had a very hard time getting my tubal fulguration, too

I ended up being on Depo-Provera for years. Not so bad - effective and easy, but not so great for my kidney disease but better than getting pregnant; I have a kidney disease that makes pregnancy a really horrible idea. Yet despite having a disease that no one thinks should be combined with pregnancy, because I was young, nullapara and unmarried - well, if I met the Right Man, I might have want to sacrifice myself trying to have a baby. I guess. Of course, these were the same doctors who told me I couldn't possibly have sleep apnea because I was "too young, too thin and too female" (I have severe mixed apnea). I was told I had fibromyalgia (I don't; I have a weird form of arthritis and kidney disease).

I finally found excellent doctors once I moved to California and I'm sterilized and my apnea is treated

[gkhouston]

18. I'm glad you finally found the right doctors.

I absolutely hate that doctors so often think that women's health issues are imaginary or psychological. I have thyroid disease, and it took years to get a proper diagnosis.

[Rex]

24. It took my mother 20 years to get a doctor to listen to her

she has Sjögren’s Syndrome.

[REP]

27. Yikes.

I know what that is because when my ANA came up positive, that's one of the additional tests I had (nope, just a positive ANA, allergy to sunlight and unrelated kidney disease, whew). Hope she's doing well!

[Rex]

35. She fights it everyday and it broke my heart to watch

her cry...nobody would believe her...yet when I WENT to the doctor, he discovered my illness right away (mom is not a patient of his). So it really made me think WTF.

She is doing well, thanks to medicine.



I can't believe I am the 1 in 10...but that is how life is.

[REP]

37. I know that feeling

I have primary idiopathic FSGS, a renal disease common in older hypertensive Black men. I am white, hypOtensive and female. My prognosis is the same, though Kidney disease all looks the same until the biopsy, but they were rather surprised at the results.

I also have ankylosing spondylitis, another condition more common in men. My form is much milder, though my shoulder and elbows are so destroyed I will be having a lot of surgery soon. Yay?

[Rex]

41. No...not yay.

[REP]

42. Not that I'm a fan of surgery

But removing the end of my clavicle will stop the pain (so will repairing the tendons). Replacing the joint on the other side sounds a lot scarier but on days like today, I'm willing to start sawing myself!

Even though I whine A LOT, I do know I'm pretty lucky

[Rex]

43. I've never seen you whine.

You are very strong IMO, shouldn't say that about yourself.

[REP]

44. You must be new! :-)

I work under the theory that even my itises can't stand the moaning, so maybe they'll leave!

Really, I get mopier around Dr visits, and I just got the "need everything replaced soon" news ... most of the time, I really DO know how lucky I am! I have insurance, I'm married to O- and there are plenty of people who would give anything to trade ailments with me.

You're awfully kind, though!

[Rex]

45. Awww garrrrrsh...

[gkhouston]

29. Ouch. I've heard that's horrible.

for your mom.

[Rex]

32. Thank you!

I have it too.

[gkhouston]

34. Oh, damn. As much as I hate having Hashi's, if you've gotta have an autoimmune

disease, it's probably the one to have. It's more like have a lobster clamped onto my foot all the time, instead of a bear trap around my leg.

[Rex]

36. Ouch!

Is that what it is like?

Yeah, some mornings my white blood cells start feeding on my joints and back all the way down my sciatic nerve and into each and every toe.

I have become good friends with pain.

Mom is in 4 times the pain I experience every day.

She is one reason I embrace feminism.

[tammywammy]

11. I'm 31 and not married and childless

Both my parents understand that I'm neither looking for a marriage (if it happens it happens, but if not that's okay too) and both know I don't particularly want children. Both parents are okay with that. If someone tells me "you'll change your mind" it's not someone I'm close to, like a classmate at college. I just tell them "no, I won't."

[REP]

17. I'm very lucky - my family is unconcerned with my lack of issue :-)

My brother is CF, too. My (now) husband's parents are not concerned with our lack of reproduction.

When I get told I'll change my mind, I say Alzheimer's doesn't run in my family.

[DURHAM D]

25. Remember this -

"... I Forgot To Have Children"



I had a t-shirt a long time ago. Think I will order a fridge magnet.

[REP]

26. Yup! :-)

I also have "Why do I have to get married? I haven't done anything wrong!"


(I'm pro equal marriage, but think its an outdated system ... but am married anyway. Long story)

[MADem]

15. That is .... a scream!

People will PRY, won't they, and shamelessly too--that woman's husband has some seriously good wit.

[MADem]

8. The obsession about body image seems to grow more strident with the

increase in obesity nationwide. It's a very curious thing.

I've never seen so much "body criticism" in all my years on earth, too. People are very demanding of some sort of impossible standard of perfection, both to one another, and to total strangers, even when their height and weight are proportional and they look entirely healthy.

And while the women have taken the brunt of the abuse and intrusive examination in this regard, the tables are starting to turn with regard to the men as well. Men are being urged to have "abs" -- a "six pack"--otherwise they are viewed as less desirable. It's by no means an equal playing field but it is an interesting shift in attitudes.

And then, on top of all that, there is the Cult of Celebrity. The paparazzi helped feed that beast, the papers print it, the curious public lives vicariously....and there you go.

I found out that some of these celebrities get paid "by the tweet" to sneak in advertisements to their "loyal followers." Talk about a No-Work, No-Show job! The celebrities don't even have to actually compose the tweets! It's all about selling "things"--clothes, fashion accessories, booze, all sorts of consumables--even absurdly priced, thousand dollar baby/toddler outfits. I think that is especially obscene.

And then, there's the whole "no boundaries" thing. People think it's "OK" now to ask anyone about everything and anything, to include that baby bump or that they saw so-and-so going into the dermatologist. Heck, if "Will and Kate" can't have any privacy, why should you, or me, or the couple down the street?

It's a very curious byproduct of modern society, this feeling that anyone can ask anyone about anything and this sense that people have some sort of entitlement to know what is going on in the lives of others. I do think the Cult of Celebrity contributes to all that.

[Neoma]

9. Men are also tanned, smooth and hairless now.

Chest hair is so 70s.

[MADem]

12. What is this thing about the "no hair" nowadays?

Everyone is waxing everything, and bleaching parts of the body that were unmentionable back in the day!

As Doctor Smith used to say...

Oooooooooooooh, the pain...the PAIN!!!!

[Neoma]

13. If you show more skin, you're in!

It's to sexualize the body more. What better way than to show much flesh? Weird culture we're in. So afraid of sex, and totally disapproving of it at the same time. Can't show a nipple! But putting electrical tape on it is just fine.

[MADem]

14. Pretty soon, everyone will run around with a couple of hankies and some dental floss, and be done

with it....

Oh well, it might get TSA off our asses when we go through airport security!

I'll tell ya, though, at my age, it won't be a delightful sight; probably closer to punishment! Lucky me that I'll only be affronted when I pass a mirror!

Oooooh, the pain! indeed!!!

[gkhouston]

19. At least I could take my glasses off, and the sound of breaking glass

would be my only clue that I'd passed a mirror.

[MADem]

20. Heh heh--I'm with ya--I resemble those remarks! nt

[gkhouston]

21. LOL, this is one thread that would be better off *without* pictures.

[MADem]

22. ...

[REP]

28. At the risk of being serious, both of you cut that out :-)

I have no idea what either of you look like, but may I respectfully suggest this is the wrong group to make fun of your appearance We all get enough of that shit without doing it to ourselves!

I will now take the stick out of my butt

[gkhouston]

30. Eew. Now I know why you have such a stiff manner.

TMI!

[REP]

38. At least I didn't post photos.

YET.

[gkhouston]

39. Damn you. Just when I'd run out of brain bleach. n/t

[REP]

40. I brought enough for everyone

[Neoma]

23. Nah, people would get too cold to do that.

Even nudists wear clothes sometimes.

[gkhouston]

31. Are the media scraping the bottom of the barrel for material,

or are we supposed to think that entertainment figures are the new royalty, and we need to be sure the succession has been secured?

Or am I supposed to think the only thing I could have in common with an entertainment figure is the potential to become pregnant?

Similarly, why should I be invested in the hook-ups and break-ups of people I'm unlikely ever to meet? If I want to read about romance, I'd pick up a bodice-ripper (not likely!), whose characters probably have more dimensions that many entertainment figures display.

[and ur bird can sing]

33. I don't have any children, nor do I want any

Love them but...In any case, I think it's neat when I hear about celebs and people I know who are preggers. I imagine who the kid will take after, etc. It's really not so deep. You are talking more about the societal pressure for a woman to reproduce but once she's knocked up, then it's a whole new ballgame.

[Neoma]

46. It's a roll your eyes moment, every time I see it.

Happens in Wal-greens a lot.