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A woman was kicked out of an Illinois bar last week, where she was celebrating with her girlfriends. Her crime: pregnancy. More »
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Hey, remember when people were concerned about the summary way abortion was treated in Juno and Knocked Up? Sarah Palin loved that shit. Especially because it wasn't all "European." God bless America. More »
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On this site, we joke about the Unsolicited Uterus Updates in the tabloids and on gossip sites, but the truth is that prying about the status of a woman's womb — famous or not — is really inappropriate. More »
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The birth-control pill is approaching its 50th anniversary, so let's take a moment to reflect on how it's helped with family planning — and how it's also allowed us to maybe wait too long to get started on that stuff. More »
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Natalie Portman's cannabis connections: Next fall's Your Highness, admissions of college weed-smoking, now Best Buds. "Everyone has a cause. Some people have cancer, some have literacy. Mine is proving that women smoke weed too," its screenwriter Jamie Denbo tells us. More »
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A proposal to provide pregnancy tests at British schools generated this response: "Schools would be far better holding group discussions about the stupidity, the seriousness, and the damaging effects of immature teenage girls who indulge in early sex." [Telegraph] More »
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Science guy says: "Our conclusion is that natural childbirth preparation with psychoprophylaxis does not reduce the need for epidural analgesia or improve the birth experience, when compared with the standard form of antenatal education." Translation: watch the labor scene in any rom-com! More »
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A recent study has found that, despite what some have previously argued (and what several celebrities have claimed), there is no such thing as "preg head." More »
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Many former teen mothers are dismayed at what they perceive to be a exaltation of teen pregnancy in pop culture. Evelyn Rodriguez, 34, who had a son at age 15 and is just now getting her college degree tells the AP, "[Teen pregnancy] has been glorified all over the place." Rodriguez believes lower income girls might see Jamie Lynn Spears and Bristol Palin and think, "'Oh, wow, they're doing it, it's cool.' But it's not cool. I've been through it. It's a job. I don't appreciate what's going on out there making it seem so beautiful, when it's not." Lausell Bryant, the executive director of Inwood House, a NYC nonprofit that takes in pregnant teens says that government support is hard to come by for her organization. "These girls are seen as to blame for where they are…It's a double standard. If you're a poor kid of color, it's a bad thing. If you're affluent and white, it's not so bad." More »
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The plot thickens! According to Perez via a second story in the National Enquirer, Jamie Lynn Spears IS pregnant! A family member has allegedly confirmed it, and the Spears clan is allegedly denying it to buy themselves time. • For a short preview of the new season of 30 Rock, click here! The season starts October 30, and Oprah Winfrey, Jennifer Aniston, and Steve Martin will be among the guest stars this fall. Squee! • Leonardo DiCaprio and off-again, on-again girlfriend Bar Refaeli are vacationing in Tulum, Mexico and we're not. Sigh. [Perez , E!, Just Jared] More »
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The Times of London has an article about women in their thirties who get pregnant "accidentally on purpose," meaning they have unprotected sex with someone they think is "good father material" without the dude knowing their intentions. The paper talks to a woman named Katya who kept the baby that resulted from a 2 week fling; she is making no demands on the father. "I’m not expecting him to be involved. I’m financially independent, so I know I can give this baby an amazing life," she says. "I will be able to offer a more stable life than some of my girlfriends, who gave up their jobs a decade ago to have children, and who are now in failing marriages and have no independent income.” More »
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It's been about 48 hours since Bristol Palin's pregnancy was announced, and pundits of all stripes have weighed in on the significance of a single, underage, fertile female. In the Washington Post, columnist Courtland Milloy writes, "We are ambivalent about what to do once a girl becomes pregnant. But once that choice is made — and it is a personal choice — what the girl needs most is love and support. If the public can't offer that to Bristol, the least we can do is leave her alone." No, Courtland. The least the public can do is take Bristol's mother to task for not supporting teen pregnancies that occur outside her immediate family. More »
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When Sarah Palin gave her introductory speech on Friday in Dayton, Ohio, she spent a minute or two thanking the McCains and uttering various pleasantries about her nomination before launching into a several minute spiel about her family — about her snowmobilin' husband, Todd, and about her oldest son, Track, who enlisted in the army on September 11th and will be deployed to Iraq on the same day this month. After that, she talked about what a great man and patriot John McCain is. In the nearly 20 minute speech, we learned literally nothing about Palin's policy, except that she "never really set out to be in public affairs," adding,"I was just your average 'Hockey Mom' in Alaska." And let's be honest: were Palin not a woman, and not a mom, she wouldn't be anywhere near the Republican ticket. Her motherhood is the crux of her public image. Which is why I must respectfully disagree with Megan that Bristol Palin's pregnancy should be off-limits. More »
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Writer/Producer/Director/Hollywood sweetheart Judd Apatow's alleged sexism has been oft-discussed 'round these parts, and in her review of the new Apatow production Step Brothers, the NY Times' Manohla Dargis explores Judd's comedic man-child meme and rips it a new asshole. Quick plot summary: Step Brothers stars Will Ferrell and John C. Reilly, and the two lumbering 40-somethings play losers who still live with their respective parents and love Star Wars. Emotionally stunted grown dudes who have trouble relating to women and play with toys. Sound familiar? More »
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A reader recently wrote in to call Seth Rogen out for his remarks to Vanessa Grigoriadis in August's Elle — especially his allegation that the filming of Knocked Up was totally "open and communicative and input-driven" and that Katherine Heigl should've said something if she disapproved of the film. Marie Claire is cracking the Rogen backlash too, deriding "doughy Seth Rogen" in an article titled, "Huggable, Yes. But Hot? Not So Much." Our reader has a point — Rogen certainly wouldn't be the first man to mistake an environment where he's comfortable for one where everyone's comfortable, and it's quite possible that Heigl's input wouldn't have been as welcome as his. But Rogen comes off pretty well in the rest of the Elle interview, and I think he deserves a little defending. Here's why: More »
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Miley Cyrus sez, “I’d love to do a younger, cleaner version of Sex and the City," and then also that she cherishes her purity ring because "I like to think of myself as the girl that no one can get, that no one can keep in their hand." In the words of Miley's generation: OMG WTF LOLZZZZZZ • Kim Kardashian weighs in on sister Khloe's forthcoming jail time for violating her probation after a DUI. Khloe is "ready and willing" to do her jail time, and Kim continues, "I urge people to learn from the mistakes of others. Please drink responsibly, and it's never acceptable to drink and drive!" PSA's from your fave reality stars! • Ok, you know we're not usually into pregnancy speculation and all that but is Uma Thurman knocked up? [Us, Us, Dlisted] More »
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This morning, CNN, Fox News and Bloomberg News are all reporting that teen pregnancy is on the rise after a 15 year decline. The CDC statistics they used sounded awfully familiar, so I hopped into the Jezebel wayback machine and discovered that the "new" teen pregnancy statistics they're bemoaning were actually released in November, 2007, and merely re-released last week as part of a larger report called "America's Children in Brief: Key National Indicators of Well-Being 2008." That report has all sorts of other information about teenagers — how much they're smoking, how frequently they're injured — and yet, CNN, Fox and Bloomberg all decided to go with the teen pregnancy statistics as their headlines and initial paragraphs. More »
]]> http://jezebel.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=5024186&view=rss&microfeed=true Notorious More »
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ABC Family's much-hyped teen pregnancy drama The Secret Life of an American Teenager debuts tonight and that, coupled with the Gloucester High baby explosion, has inspired a slew of articles discussing the state of barely-legal uteri. Christopher Caldwell of the Financial Times claims that the current "ideology" of teen pregnancy was devised by "baby-boom feminists" who are pushing their career-minded priorities on a lower class that wants nothing to do with Friedan-style goals. "As it gets harder to climb out of the class one was born in, the opportunity cost of being a young mother falls…Poor teen mothers 'have about the same long-term earnings trajectories as similarly disadvantaged youth who wait until their mid or late twenties to have a child'" Caldwell notes. "Given the increasing likelihood that a woman will raise her children alone, might not the teen years be a prudent time to become a single mother, while the financial and day-care resources of one’s own parents are still available?" More »
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There's an article in Psychology Today about the after-effects of different kinds of birth on the ol' vagina. And guys, it is bleak. (Think the Psych Today editors were inspired by that Elle article last month on sex after giving birth?) Three months after a C-section, 55% of women reported sexual dissatisfaction. That's nothing compared to women who gave birth vaginally, 70% of whom reported sexual dissatisfaction! Episiotomies can cause painful intercourse even 12-18 months after a woman gives birth, and assisted delivery (use of forceps or a vacuum) can cause painful intercourse, perineal pain, and delays in the resumption of sex. And don't even get me started on the after effects of watching childbirth on the male sexual psyche. According to Psychology Today, "For some men, a very intimate body part can become completely desexualized. Or they see someone they cherish dramatically sliced open. In either case, they can then associate their partners with a disturbing and gruesome scene." More »
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Gillian Anderson is with child! This will be her second child with boyfriend Mark Griffiths and her third in total. Because getting married before having children is so pre-Milennial! • Sarah Jessica Parker has been famous pretty much her entire life, and a new book out by Annie songwriter Charles Strouse talks about wee SJP and her innate talent. Apparently everyone involved in Annie except for Strouse thought Parker was "'too sad looking' and 'too dark' to score" as the adorably orphaned moppet. • Despite the star power of Mario Lopez, the Chorus Line revival has its last Broadway performance on August 17th. Where is that saving bell when you need it? [People, Village Voice, SOW via Dlisted] More »
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The New York Times "Thursday Styles" section appears to be embarking on campaign to keep the severely vain from procreating. First, there's an article on how to treat stretch marks. "Can stretch marks, or striae gravidarum, as they are known among the Ph.D. set, really be prevented?" the Times wonders. "The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists says no." Ouch. Then there is a second article about acne during pregnancy. Apparently many forms of acne treatment (Accutane, benzoyl peroxide, Retin-A) are potentially harmful to the fetus, so zitty moms-to-be need to stick to topical erythromycin and cleansers with glycolic acid. But you know, what's wrong with a third eye when you have clear, glowing skin!!! [NYT, NYT] More »
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If you're not interested in getting pregnant, this new study might inspire you to be more vigilant with condom use. Nonprofit sexual research organization the Guttmacher Institute claims that half of all pregnancies are unplanned and one in four American women will get preggers because of inconsistent contraceptive use. There are several reasons for erratic contraceptive use, reports Guttmacher, including lack of access to health care, being unable to afford birth control pills, and major life changes like the end of a relationship, a move, job change or personal crisis. Often when women are lax about birth control, researchers reason, they are ambivalent about preventing pregnancy. Many women surveyed "confessed that they would be very pleased if they found out they were pregnant," Reuters notes. Speaking of women who are pleased to be pregnant, yesterday, a second baby was born among the young women plucked from the Fundamentalist Latter Day Saints compound in Texas. More »
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Is Mama Spears forcing Jamie Lynn into marriage with baby daddy Casey Aldridge? A family friend tells Star, "Jamie Lynn is having a shotgun wedding, and it's Lynne who is holding the shotgun!" • Kim Cattrall says that male actors are even more vain than the ladies. "I remember one actor who was doing his scene, he had to show a bit of his butt, right?," Cattrall recalls. "And he went to the gym, he hadn't eaten for weeks and he passed out on the set. (I thought,) 'You've got to be kidding!'" S-assy! • Hulk Hogan's son, Nick Bollea was sentenced to 8 months in prison for felony reckless driving today. The charges were stemming from an August 26 crash that left passenger John Graziano so seriously injured that he'll likely spend the rest of his life in a nursing home. Nick was also sentenced to 500 hours of community service, three years with his license revoked, and five years probation, during which time he is not allowed to drink. [Star, UPI, Us] More »
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Amy Poehler's got a bun in the oven. This will be her first baby with husband Will Arnett. We hope Amy's birth does not feel like "shitting a knife." • Happy SNL star news followed by sad: Cheri Oteri's father, Tommy Oteri, was stabbed to death by his roommate, William Fagan, after an argument. • Britney Spears will definitely be reprising her role as a lovelorn receptionist on How I Met Your Mother. Production for the episode, which will air May 12th, began today. [Us, Us, Dlisted] More »
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This is so sad. David Beckham gave his sweat-soaked jersey to two young boys after a Los Angeles Galaxy game at Hawaii's Aloha stadium. Now, the boys' parents are duking it out in court to see who gets possession of the jersey. "My son got the shirt, their kid started trying to pry it away," said Wilfred Ho, who is the mother of one of the boys. The entire thing is so unbearably tacky. • Benji Madden ran over a paparazzo's foot last night leaving a club with Paris Hilton in the passenger seat. Benji drove away, and the photographer has filed a hit and run report. These tools really need to get drivers when they go out to clubs. It would save them a lot of money and legal wrangling. • Yesterday Carmen Electra announced her engagement to Korn guitarist Rob Patterson; today the pregnancy speculation begins. [ CNN, TMZ, Celebitchy via dlisted] More »
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Marky Mark is adding another baby to his funky bunch. He and his fiancée of four years, Rhea Durham, are expecting a third child. • Babies for everyone! Ugly Betty's Eric Mabius and wife Ivy Sherman are expecting baby number two. Their first child, Maxwell, is almost 2 years old. • Dancing with the Stars' Cheryl Burke admits to "smooching" certified hottie Gerard Butler. Burke tells People: "[My dance partner"] Cristian [de la Fuente] introduced us a few weeks ago...We've kissed." [ Dlisted,Us, People] More »
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Spain's pinko prime minister, José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, has just begun his second term, and his commitment to gender parity in government is unparalleled: For the first time, women outnumber men 9 to 8 in the Spanish cabinet. Even more revolutionary is the fact that Spain's first female defense minister, Carme Chacón, 37, is seven months up the stick. Marisa Sotelo, president of the the Spanish Women's Foundation, says, in an interview with Time, that the impression of a pregnant women leading a group of soldiers is "an important image precisely because it conveys normality...It serves a pedagogic function: it shows that women can be and are everywhere." Unsurprisingly, not all of Spain is thrilled that a very pregnant woman will be leading Spanish troops. A conservative military association consisting mostly of retired soldiers called Chacón's appointment a sign of "contempt." More »
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Mere months after pundits bemoaned the Juno effect following the release of statistics showing that teen pregnancy was on the rise in 2005-6, the CDC released a slew of new statistics yesterday reporting that teen pregnancy rates are falling drastically. What gives? Well, the first set of statistics were just for the years 2005 and 2006, whereas the figures released yesterday were gathered from 1990-2004. In 2004, only 12% of total births were to teenagers; in 1990 the rate was 15%. As for the upswing in teen pregnancies after 2004, CDC researcher Stephanie Ventura says, "It's way too early to know if this is the start of a new trend, but given the long-term progress we've witnessed, this change is notable." More »
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Ashlee Simpson done got knocked up by boyfriend/ brand new fiancé Pete Wentz, says Us. BUT! In an email to MTV News, Wentz denies sperminating Ashlee. Oooh, drama! • Madge's husband, Guy Ritchie, allegedly lost weight on the cookie diet, which involves eating only one meal a day — dinner — plus up to six cookies. "My husband went on that cookie diet and it was such a turn-off because he didn't want to have sex," she reportedly said. "He did lose weight but he didn't really need to lose that much weight. I think he did it because all his friends were doing it and he wanted to see if he could do it." • NBA star Carmelo Anthony was booked on suspicion of a DUI this morning. He gave cops a blood test, the results of which will be available in two weeks. [Us, MTV, Dlisted, TMZ] More »
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Pretty bitches are just as picky and superficial about men as you've always assumed: According to University of Texas psychology researcher David Buss, women "gauge what they can get [from men] based on what they got," in terms of attractiveness. Buss's study, titled "Attractive Women Want It All," says that women, regardless of looks, want four things from a long-term relationship: good looks, economic resources, nascent parenting skills, and loyalty and devotion. If a woman believes she is especially beautiful, she'll retain high standards in all of these areas, but if a woman considers herself mediocre looking, she'll relax her expectations. Buss' study adds that even a really hot woman will lower her standards if she's having trouble finding the perfect mate, which might explain another study that's getting play in the press today. Research from the University of Tennessee shows that women are happier with men who are uglier than they are. More »
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There's some new research in today's Australian that suggests pregnancy can make women "smarter and quicker for decades after giving birth," because the extra estrogen floating around promotes neuron growth. Well, you Jezemoms must be brimming with estrogen, because yesterday, you gave us all the things we wanted to know, but were afraid to ask, about pregnancy and giving birth. Most of the dirty little secrets of pregnancy had to do with body functions and swelling: you got "plump Lara Croft style tits and cankles"; your tummy hair grew lustrous like a "care bear"; you peed yourselves, you shat yourselves, and oh, was there vomit! One of you summarized the end game thusly: "All said, it is a fabulous experience which I would not have traded for all the world, and I love my children more than I can say. So, suck on that bitches!" After the jump, more detailed horrors of the gestating and a prize for the grossest sentence ever. More »
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There are so many dirty little secrets about giving birth that don't get shown on the silver screen. I still remember the combination of revulsion and awe I felt when I discovered that many women shit themselves during labor. Revulsion because, ew. Awe because of the wondrous inner workings of the female body! What To Expect When You're Expecting has been the book to buy in debunking these "secrets" of pregnancy since it was first published in 1984. The fourth edition is set to be released next month, and, according to Publishers Weekly, the update includes, "expanded sections on working during pregnancy, expectant beauty, preconception and fatherhood. The chapter on eating while pregnant is more realistic than ever." We're all about keeping it real here at Jezebel, so the childless whores on staff are wondering: what kinds of things should women expect while they're pregnant that probably didn't make it into the book? More »
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Nearly one-third of women had C-sections in 2005, a major jump from the number in 1995, when only one-fifth of women delivered babies by Caesarean. The study was done by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, and also said that the sharpest decline in natural birth was from women who had already given birth to first child through C-section. Another possible cause for the decline is, like Christina Aguilera, women in America are just afraid of getting their junk torn up by pushing a kid out. Doctors definitely took an X-acto to X-tina! [UPI, Daily Mail] More »
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"There can be no female agency in Knocked Up, Waitress, and Juno — not because they are comedies, but because, in each scenario, unwanted pregnancy is the joke played (by God?) on the female lead. As the most successful of the preg protags, she who is Knocked Up is necessarily the most smacked down — the glass ceiling turns out to be Alison's own uterus. Jenna and Juno are less formidable, but unexpected fertility mocks their dreams of autonomy. All three are taught their place by their own bodies—and what's more, they learn to like it." — Village Voice film critic J. Hoberman on 2007, the year of the "abortion-not" movie. [Village Voice] More »
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This year's female acting Oscar nominees are a strange bunch of characters — and no, we don't mean the narcissistic actresses themselves. While the Supporting Actress field is rife with Hollywood's version of the female victim, the Best Actress category has some complicated characters that have too damn much going on emotionally for us to be able to tell decide if they were victims (or hookers, or doormats) or not! After all, tragedy doesn't equate victimhood and playing tough doesn't necessarily make one a hero. After the jump, we break down the characters — and ask you to tell us who's a victim, who's a hooker, who's a doormat, and who's on the fence. (Hint: We consult our Magic 8-Ball.) More »
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Not only is today Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, tomorrow marks the 35th anniversary of the Supreme Court decision Roe vs. Wade. (Erica Jong weighs in here.) And did you know that one of the most vocal abortion opponents is Martin Luther King Jr.'s niece, self-described "reformed murderer" Alveda King? (King, seen above left, had two abortions when she was younger, and offers up this gem: "We give free sex education, free condoms, free birth control. That's almost like permission to have free sex.") Yup, less than a week after the news broke that the abortion rate in the U.S. is at its lowest in 45 years, the media is coming out with its inevitable "the women behind the abortions" stories, and the (not-so-surprising) news is that the majority of abortions are being performed on women who have already had kids, many of them college-educated. In fact, in the 35 years since Roe vs. Wade, there have been roughly 50 million abortions in the United States, with more than 1/3 of adult women estimated to have had one (a disproportionate number of those women are black or Hispanic). And on this, the eve of the anniversary of Roe V. Wade, I'll say it: I am one of those women. More »
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Today marks the opening of the Katherine Heigl-helmed romantic comedy 27 Dresses. We feel like we knew everything about the movie's plot before even reading a single review. So what did we learn by reading the reviews? That it, in addition to its thin storyline — and we don't mean "thin" in a pro-ana sort of way — 27 Dresses is pretty bad. Also, it's probably even more anti-feminist than that movie Katherine Heigl claims to be have been so ashamed to have appeared in, Knocked Up. See what some hilarious critics had to say, after the jump. More »
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Jennifer Senior wants you to know that she's always been a tomboy. In an article called "My Macho Pregnancy" in this month's Marie Claire, the New York magazine scribe writes: "Carrying a child did nothing to free me from the conviction that I am more masculine than feminine." In the next paragraph, she describes what she sees as "masculine traits" in herself: "Before I got pregnant, I was analytical and unsentimental and indifferent to shopping; during my first two trimesters, I was analytical and unsentimental and indifferent to shopping." The fact that she marks these traits as "macho" is insulting enough, but what's worse are the traits she implies are "feminine." In her last trimester, in which "machismo is completely out of the question," Senior says she became "hopelessly dependent, relying on the kindness of strangers to give up their subway seats, open doors, and in one especially awkward instance, tie my shoes." More »
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Unlike European nations, which are experiencing a population decline, the United States is virtually exploding with infants, reports the Associated Press. There were nearly 4.3 million births in 2006, and experts believe that there are several reasons for this mini-boom: "A decline in contraceptive use, a drop in access to abortion, poor education and poverty." Cultural factors are also at work, as Latinos have fertility rates that are 40% higher than the norm, and, according to Johns Hopkins Professor Nan Marie Astone, "Americans like children. We are the only people who respond to prosperity by saying, 'Let's have another kid.'" It's that approach — the interweaving of prosperity and fertility — that is troubling. It sounds like the same semi-mercenary logic behind the desire to have a second car. Which is not to say that finances aren't a huge part of the decision to have kids, but when it's the only reason to have another child, it's a little disturbing. More »
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