Anonymous Mom, No Dads, + 14

[xoxoxoBruce]

We forsake you
Gonna rape you
Let's forget you better still.

[Sundae]

Right now, in Britain, we have a reality TV star who is trying to earn money to make sure her sons are okay.

Why?

She has terminal cancer.

She got the news when she was on Indian Big Brother (the reasons for which are too long to go into). She signed up for a series as soon as she got back to the UK, and they have followed her every step of the way. She, the tabloids, and I believed she would weather this storm as she has every other - she's a born survivor.

But no. She has months to live.
And journalists are finally coming round to treating her with respect.

Because when it's one of their own (John Diamond's cancer diaries in the Times) it's "brave". When it's someone from Big Brother it's "desperate" and "is there nothing she won't share?"

Jade Goody has admitted she is trying to bank enough to secure the future for her two sons. But also to show the process for other people in the same situation, who don't have the same media coverage. And to die as she lived - in the public eye.

Sorry, this ended up being off topic.
I have no support for the amazing clown vagina woman.
I just wanted to point out that a decent person who loves their children can have an acceptable reason for letting the media in.

[Shawnee123]

Absolutely, that is a good point.

[Trilby]

Amazing Clown Vagina Woman is a good name for a rock band.

[xoxoxoBruce]

Originally Posted by Sundae Girl

I just wanted to point out that a decent person who loves their children can have an acceptable reason for letting the media in.

I firmly believe the ACVW's plan from the outset was to become rich and famous.

[classicman]

I am skeptical and agree with Bruce.

[Pie]

Report: Octuplets May Not Be Allowed Home
The Los Angeles Times is reporting that officials at a California hospital where octuplets were born late last month may not let the mother take the babies home unless she proves she can care for them. The information comes from talk show host "Dr. Phil" McGraw; hospital officials at Kaiser Permanente Southern California have refused to comment directly but said that, "In general, mothers with multiple births who have babies in the neonatal intensive care unit are given advice and counsel about what they need to have in place to care for the children when they are discharged."

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/25/health/25rounds.html

[toranokaze]

A grain of sanity in an ocean of insanity.

[sugarpop]

Here's a thought, just like people shouldn't use abortion as a form of birth control, people who can't conceive shouldn't use fertility treatments to have litters.

[Clodfobble]

Here's a thought, people who never wanted children should shut the fuck up about fertility treatments, lest they accidentally offend some of the millions of great parents out there who happened to need them. Oh, and they should consider dropping all metaphors that equate babies to dogs, while they're at it.

[sugarpop]

I wasn't talking about people who used fertility treatments to have a kid, or even two kids, I was talking about cases like this woman, who already had six kids, 3 of which are disabled, before popping out 8 more, even when she couldn't afford the ones she already had. It isn't natural, and it isn't right. That's why I used the derogatory term equating it to dogs.

It is still a valid point. And the fact that I have CHOSEN not to have kids does not invalidate my opinion or the point I was making. I know a LOT of people with kids who feel the same way.

[DanaC]

I must agree with Clod on the dog thing. I really dislike all these comparisons to dogs and litters. It's utterly dehumanising. It doesn't just speak to the case in point, it speaks to femininity and womanhood more generally.

I occasionally frequent a gaming board and it has an off-topic section. Debates about abortion routinely involve comments like "if the bitches are too stupid to keep their legs closed" or others referring to 'bitches' 'squeezing out another fucking brat'

The attitude of the young lads on that board actually shocked me. Very misogynistic, very aggressively anti-female. The most common similes and metaphors for women and childbirth relate to dogs. They almost always refer to women in those debates in animalistic terms and almost always negatively.

[Griff]

I think its a socialization issue, as much as people defend gaming there is a de-humanizing aspect to it. Combine that with the attitude that develops on boards where folks say anything to get a rise and you get a pretty toxic environment. I'm wondering if some these boys who may be outcasts in the real world develop a really unhealthy support system on-line. Thinking of the teens around my girls, I'm drawing some pretty unscientific conclusions but it is enough to warn them about.

[DanaC]

It surprised me. And bear in mind, I've been bopping about the gaming boards for pretty much as long as gaming boards have existed. No word of a lie, there was a 'debate' on that board in which various young men posited their belief that females were naturally less capable of rational thought than males.

Along with other gems like "the problem with young women is they don't know how to entertain themselves" in a wider point about how to 'manage' one's relationship with a girl. That same poster was suggesting things like: "let her win the argument now and then, it'll make her feel good. There's nothing wrong with pretending she's as clever as you sometimes."

[Clodfobble]

Originally Posted by sugarpop

I wasn't talking about people who used fertility treatments to have a kid, or even two kids,

What about people who used fertility treatments and ended up with triplets? Or people who used fertility treatments to become pregnant with their third, or fourth consecutive child? The only relevant point is whether the parent can care for the children, not how they got them. You've made it very clear in other posts that you think having even one child is grotesquely irresponsible from a societal standpoint, so when you focus on the fact that she "can't conceive," rather than the fact that she has no money and is obviously not acting in her children's best interests, you come very close to implying that she was infertile 'for a reason' and should take the hint.