Marginal Notes

Does Iris Evans, Minister of Finance, Know Anything About the Economy?!

Iris Evans, the Minster of Finance in Alberta, remarked today that in order to raise children "properly" one parent should stay at home while the other goes to work.

Huh?

Is the Minister of Finance aware that wages have been falling for decades and few families are able to rely on one income? Is she aware that we are in the middle of a global recession?

Somehow, I have a hunch that she'd be less than pleased that her stance may more frequently become the norm as men lose their jobs and may forcibly become the household caregiver.

Let's here what Evans has to say:

In a tangent at the end of a speech on Alberta's economy to the Economic Club of Canada in Toronto, Iris Evans spoke about the importance of teaching kids about finances and how those lessons can be empowering.

After struggling with finances as a mother herself, Evans said she made it her mission to teach her kids about money.

Now as adults with their own families, her kids have topped up RRSPs, live in good houses and have good savings, Evans said.

She also said good parenting means sacrificing some income to stay at home while kids are young, as her children have done.

"They've understood perfectly well that when you're raising children you don't both go off to work and leave them for somebody else to raise," Evans said.

"This is not a statement against daycare. It's a statement about their belief in the importance of raising children properly."

She also said a lack of education is ruining the upbringing of some children and leading to mental illness and crime.

"The huge failure of Canadians is not to educate the children properly and then why should we be surprised when they have mental illnesses or commit dreadful crimes?," she said.

"We've really got to focus on that properly and it should be financial literacy as well as anything else."

Evans said today's Canadians don't save enough money and a simple fix to avoid those pitfalls for the next generation is to teach children about finances from an early age.

"If you don't read to the child they'll never learn how to read and if you don't talk to them about money and we don't start educating this next generation they'll think that the world owes them a living," she told the small business crowd.

Not only should parents be teaching kids about money, but government should also be putting money toward financial literacy, Evans said, lamenting the lack of such funds in Alberta's recent budget.

"The great tragedy in this year's budget in Alberta ... is that we put 200 more policemen, police officers, for the next two years and more Crown prosecutors, more law enforcement people," she said.

"If we had put 200 more positions in place to help parents be better parents I would have been much happier."

Evans also spoke of the need for a national supplemental pension plan, saying provinces will be meeting in July to propose a framework to take to the federal government.

Ideally that would happen in two to three years, but even if that can't happen Alberta and B.C. will pursue their own approach, she said.

"If nationally the other provinces aren't' engaged for whatever reason or if it can't be attached to a vehicle like CPP that makes sense to the provinces, B.C. and Alberta will definitely go ahead," Evans said.

"Our savings by individuals are far too low."

So, if more parents stayed home to raise their children, children would have better financial literacy, be less mentally ill, less criminally-oriented, and less in debt?!

I cannot even touch on the convoluted reasoning of Evans' cavalier comments about mental illness and crime being linked to lack of home parenting.

But is the Minister of Finance seriously suggesting that: 1) all parents can afford to say home; and 2) financial literacy is all that is required to establish financial security?

Were all the stockbrokers and investors who lost big with the global recession financially illiterate?

Does Iris Evans know anything about economics beyond balancing a checkbook?!

Here's a thought - maybe, if the United Nations Systems of National Accounting counted care work as productive labour, we could organize a society that allowed parents to spend more time at home.

Maybe, if we did not live under Capitalism that happily sucks people away from all life-producing and enhancing activities to exploit them for profit, people could afford to spend time with their families.

Iris Evans, read up on the topic of reproductive work and economics before you make dumb and offensive comments about parents and their choices as they struggle to provide for their children.

Start with Nancy Folbre's "Invisible Heart." Then, try Marilyn Waring's "Who's Counting?" and then read some socialist feminist authors like Selma James, founder of the movement to Invest in Caring Not Killing.

At the very least, check out the Women and The Economy project.

Seriously, people, is not time to end oligarchy and Conservative hegemony in Alberta? Should our ministers not be required to demonstrate at least some expertise regarding the issues relevant to their departments?!

Links:

"Raising children properly' requires stay-at-home parent: Alberta minister" via CBC Calgary

Pro-Life Campaign Falsely Linking Abortion with Breast Cancer is OK...Or So Says the U of C's New VP Academic

In October of 2005, Amy Steele - a notable writer in Calgary - wrote the following piece about a pro-life campaign that misled women to believe that an abortion could cause breast cancer:

A campaign by a pro-life group to convince women that there’s a link between having an abortion and getting breast cancer doesn’t have any credible scientific basis, says the Canadian Cancer Society.

And the executive director of the Calgary Birth Control Association Sexual and Reproductive Centre, Pamela Krause, questions the motivation behind the campaign.

(The campaign) could act as a scare tactic and is not really very helpful to a woman facing an unplanned pregnancy," says Krause.

The pro-life group LifeCanada has launched a website (www.abortionbreastcancer.ca) and has put up 38 billboards across Canada, including three in Alberta, to get their message across. The billboards feature the breast cancer ribbon used by the Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation and state "Stop the Coverup."

Joanne Byfield, president of LifeCanada, says her organization decided to launch their campaign because it’s Breast Cancer Awareness Month. On its website, the organization argues that women who have abortions have an increased risk of breast cancer because they are delaying childbirth and breastfeeding. Both breastfeeding and giving birth to a child at an earlier age have been proven to reduce the risk of breast cancer.

This is something Canadian women should be aware of," says Byfield. "This link has been studied for over 50 years. There are 50 some studies that do show an increased risk, and by and large women are not told about the possibility of an increased risk of breast cancer when they choose to have an abortion. We think that is unconscionable.

"Informed consent is a recognized and long standing principle of health care in Canada and it strikes us as wrong that women don’t have this information." But the Canadian Cancer Society disputes Byfield’s claims."Basically, although there are some published studies that suggest a slightly increased risk of breast cancer in women who have had an abortion, the total body of scientific evidence doesn’t support this," says Lori Boychuk, spokesperson for the Canadian Cancer Society.

LifeCanada alleges on its campaign website that there’s been a major coverup of the link, and Byfield says that’s because "abortion is a sacred cow in this country."

"In Canada, to challenge the status quo on abortion makes you a complete pariah," says Byfield. "Just because we as a group do not think abortion is good for women and children does not mean everything we say can be discounted as biased and everything pro-choice groups say is truth."

However, Boychuk says the society carefully monitors and weighs all scientific evidence on cancer.

"Our number one priority is providing women with the best information that is available and we’re there to serve them and give them support in terms of reliable information that’s science based," says Boychuk.

Boychuk says if women want "reliable" information on breast cancer they should go to www.cancer.ca.

Krause agrees there is no conspiracy to hide information from women and describes the LifeCanada campaign as "unfortunate."

"There is nothing hidden from women who make the choice to have an abortion," she says. "The difficulty is research can be found and statistics can be developed around any issue from a particular bias, and I believe they’re operating from a specific bias."

Krause says the National Cancer Institute (in the U.S.), the American Cancer Society and the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists have all refuted a link between abortion and breast cancer. In 2003, the National Cancer Institute brought together 100 of the world’s leading experts on breast cancer and reviewed existing research and the experts concluded there is no link between abortion and breast cancer. The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists also reviewed available evidence in 2003 and concluded there was no link.

In response to this article, Dan Bidulock - the new VP Academic of Graduate Students' Association at the U of C - wrote the following letter to FFWD magazine:

Let's all follow the example of Pamela Krause, executive director of the Calgary Birth Control Association. She questions LifeCanada's motives in campaigning to link breast cancer with abortion. I don't know about cancer or alleged coverups, but I can think of two things that might motivate the monsters over at LifeCanada to spread these "lies": women's health and the welfare of unborn babies.

Every day children are sacrificed to the gods of convenience, economy, and whim in numbers that would make Montezuma himself cringe. We're a long way from the jungles of ancient Mexico, yet the savagery continues. How is murdering the most helpless among us accepted and even lauded in our society? LifeCanada's claims of breast cancer aside, there are hundreds of couples in this province alone that would adopt an unwanted baby. Abortion is selfish, senseless, and dehumanizing to both mother and child.

I am just going to make three comments about this letter and then consider the implications of this type of reasoning for someone who holds the position of VP Academic.

1. Why is "lies" in parentheses? Is Bidulock suggesting that misinforming women about breast cancer is trivial?
2. Why is savagery equated with Mexico? Does this smack of racism to anyone else?
3. Does Bidulock really think he can speak to the feelings and motives of women who get abortions?

So, it seems that the new VP Academic believes the ends justify the means.

Bidulock will fit in well, however, with the current executive of the GSA. Incidentally, he lost the general election, but effectively harassed the true winner out of her position with the help of the executive. You see Bidulock supports the GSA's anti-CFS agenda and certainly appears comfortable employing unethical strategies to meet political agendas. For certain, the GSA uses its own unethical tactics to push their agenda of de-federation from the Canadian Federation of Students.

I have seen firsthand how the executive flat out lies about the CFS, while also explicitly acknowledging that they REFUSE to invite the CFS to visit the campus to respond to any concerns U of C students may have, including those of the executive.

And while I cannot provide evidence (note: this claim could be false), I was told by a former staff member of the GSA that the executive conspired to remove all the information pages about the Canadian Federation of Students from the day planners that the CFS supplies as part of the services that students pay for with their CFS levy each year. In fact, according to the staff member, the children of the Executive Director were hired with student funds to tamper with student property.

I encourage everyone with a day planner to check to see if the CFS pages have been removed from your planner.

Finally, students should know that the GSA passed a motion in April to no longer pass on the money levied from students to the Canadian Federation of Students. So while students' accounts will show that a levy was collected for the CFS, the GSA will actually not pass on the money collected in the name of the CFS. Misleading? Yes.

Instead students' money will go into a "reserve fund" until 2015 at which time the Graduate Representative Council will decide what to do with the "fund." So know that money is being taken from students while denying them the benefit of CFS services. And likely students' will not receive any benefits of the levy since the fund will likely not be used until after paying students have graduated!!!

See what I'm saying about lack of integrity when it comes to the means this executive will employ to achieve its myopic political goals?!

My University is Being Hijacked and Condi is Among the Terrorists!

This is what I had to say at the protest against Condoleezza Rice who was invited by The University of Calgary to open its new school of public policy...

A couple of weeks ago, I began a petition asking The University of Calgary to rescind its invitation to Dr. Condoleezza Rice to be the keynote speaker at tonight's gala.

I'm happy to say that, to date, we have collected over 250 signatures online and more in hard copy. The petition was signed by faculty and students at The U of C and members of local and international communities.

I did, however, have a well-known professor write to me to say that she felt too threatened by her department to sign the petition and that she feared losing her job.

The Iraq and Afghanistan invasions were launched using the rhetoric of freedoms and rights. And yet, over the past couple of weeks, I have become more aware than ever of the efforts that are made in North America to curb our freedom of speech.

Unfortunately for Dr. Mintz - the chair of the new school of public policy - we will not all be silenced.

The chair of the school of public policy - Dr. Jack Mintz - who incidentally sits on the board of Imperial Oil - celebrates Dr. Rice as "a good example of what a school of public policy can achieve."

Let us consider what the policies of the Bush administration - including those formulated and implemented by Condoleezza Rice - have achieved:

• The illegal invasions and occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan
• The deaths of over a million Iraqi people
• The worsening of violence against women in both Iraq and Afghanistan despite the sickening use of the rhetoric of women's rights that was employed by people such as Rice while at the same time the Bush administration launched an aggressive campaign to undermine the rights of women in America
• These invasions were accompanied by racist propaganda and the militarization of borders which undoubtedly heightened racism in the world - most notably Islamaphobia
• What is estimated to be a trillion dollar war has resulted in cutbacks to education, health care and other critical domestic arenas in the United States
• Finally, the Iraq invasion is considered to be one of the key contributing factors to current global economic recession

So, I would like to ask Dr. Mintz - again the chair of The U of C's new school of public policy - when you say that Rice offers a good example of what can be achieved, good for whom? Who benefits? Who loses?

I my eyes, the policies that Dr. Mintz celebrates come at the cost to millions of people including myself and all of you standing in this crowd.

I believe the news has reported that tonight's gala is a $500 plate affair. How many of us here can afford a $500 for a meal?

I think we can safely say that this public policy institute has invited local elites and plans to serve up policies in their interests while the rest of us - the majority - are left scrounging for scraps.

We are not just angry that The University of Calgary has invited a war criminal to our campus and our city. We are angry because of the underlying values of the policies that Dr. rice represents. And, be certain that academic freedom and integrity are not among them!

To use a favourite phrase of Bush and company, I say MAKE NO MISTAKE that we will not accept imperialism of any kind.

We are through with illegal invasions that secure the interests of global elites while killing millions. We will not fund invasions that take from the public coffers and leave us with crises of education, child care and housing.

And be sure that we will not settle for Imperialism Lite. We will not turn a blind eye because some administrations limit torture to the bombing of those on the streets. What is imperialist war other than mass torture and mass murder?!

The illegal occupations carry on. People continue to be murdered while Condoleezza gets a helping of Alberta beef.

Condoleezza Rice's policies are not good in any way, shape or form. Indeed, the outcomes of Dr. Rice's policies should be held up and identified as an example of the horrors that result when policy is made at the service of the military industrial complex, oil corporations and geopolitical gain.

Canada can no longer be the United State's Imperial puppet.
Canada must get out of Afghanistan.

Links:

'Contentious Condi Visits Calgary' by Katy Anderson, The Gauntlet

Interview that I did with CJSW's 'Yeah, What She Said'

Online petition 'Illegal War is Not Good Policy'

Pictures of the Calgary protest of Condi's visit by local photographer Robert Thivierge

International Women's Day: Invest in Caring Not Killing

It is an unfortunate reality that International's Women's Day has often become a relatively apolitical event.

To remind of us the political struggle, here is a message that was released from The Global Women's Strike in celebration of International Women's Day 2007:

On our 35th anniversary, the International Wages for Housework Campaign which co-ordinates the Global Women’s Strike, and Payday which co-ordinates men’s participation, send our greetings for all the activities that you are undertaking in March to celebrate International Women’s Day.

IWD began at the beginning of the 20th century by mobilizing against women’s exploitation and for a living wage and decent working conditions. In 1911, it protested the deaths of 140 immigrant garment workers killed in a fire in a New York factory from which they couldn’t escape (doors and windows were locked and barred). It also marked the struggle for women’s right to vote.

But IWD was also about ending war. Ninety years ago on IWD, women in Russia went on strike against the orders of their political parties. They marched with housewives to demand bread – to feed their families – and peace – two million Russian soldiers had already been slaughtered in World War I. Their strike started the 1917 revolution, which brought down the tsarist government within days.

2007 marks the anniversary of two other key events, each a step towards the liberation of the human race.

Two hundred years ago, in 1807, the British slave trade – but not yet slavery – was abolished.Two crucial factors in ending the trade in humans were the struggle of the people enslaved, which never ceased, and the grassroots movement of both Black and white people in Britain for abolition, which is hardly known.

150 years later, on the 6th of March 1957, Ghana became the first Black African country to achieve political independence from the British Empire. Julius Nyerere, first president of an independent Tanzania, referred to Ghana as Africa’s ‘first liberated zone’ The 50th anniversary of that momentous political event recalls to us the long and painful struggle of all the colonies to achieve independence, a struggle that is renewed today against the US empire.

In the decades since Ghana’s independence, many of us have learnt to search for the women whose work in every struggle is hidden from history.  We learnt that the Ghana revolution had been funded by its market women – the mother of Kwame Nkrumah, leader of the movement, was one of these powerful women.  They used their economic power to drive forward the movement to throw the imperialists out of Africa.

Women are often bolder and more practical, more likely to prioritize what’s good for the children and for the whole community, because we spend so much of our time caring for people as mothers, daughters, sisters, wives, partners, aunties, grannies… the work of survival is first of all women’s work. And given that the market which is in charge of the world’s economy has no interest in either our survival or our welfare, keeping humanity alive is revolutionary work, a struggle to prevent the market from destroying us and our world for the sake of profit.

Justice work – the work of defending ourselves and our loved ones when we are robbed of our work, our land, our time, our income, murdered, raped and tortured in other ways, imprisoned, deported – is an extension of that caring work. Women have been central to anti-war movements, fighting to defend sons, daughters, partners who refuse to be conscripted into the military and for soldiers who refuse to go to war. As many mothers have said: ‘I didn’t give birth to my son so he could kill your son.’

No wonder that women are often the hidden majority in justice campaigns:

From the mothers, grandmothers and other relatives in Argentina, Chile and elsewhere, who are still organizing to demand justice for those disappeared by the dictatorship over 30 years ago, to the women in Oaxaca, Mexico, marching to get rid of their repressive governor and for the release of those he has imprisoned; and the women in Trinidad & Tobago and Peru who, despite enormous obstacles, have formed a domestic workers union and have won recognition as workers. 

From the women in northern Uganda who are demonstrating to demand an end to military atrocities and for resources to be invested in water and food; to the women in India campaigning against bonded labour who, for the first time, are bringing together women who work on the land and the city’s domestic workers; and the women in China who are discussing the situation of rural women under the new economic expansion.

From the women in Guyana who have united across race – African, Asian, Indigenous and Mixed race – to press for an end to racist violence; to the women in Haiti demonstrating in front of the UN to demand the end of US-UN military occupation which has cost the lives of thousands.

From the mothers in the US fighting to get their children back whom the State has stolen from them because they were poor or because their partner was violent; to the women in the UK campaigning against rape, for the right to asylum from war, dictatorship or homophobia, for protection for sex workers and a decent income for single mothers, women with disabilities and older women.

From the women in Ireland, North and South, who demand that the constitution recognizes women’s caring work as Venezuela’s already does; to the women in Spain who have won some wages for carers in the home.

Everywhere women are struggling with a double and triple working day, the rich have got richer and most of us have got poorer. While feminism has helped to ensure that more women are in positions of power, most of them have followed orders rather than respond to the needs of the grassroots. Now is the time for our movement to challenge everyone with power (woman or man), to win their accountability or to reject them.

Today the perspective that the carer must be acknowledged as a worker who is central to survival, who challenges the primacy of the market, and who is entitled to wages for that work from military budgets, is far more understood and accepted than when it was first put forward 35 years ago.This perspective, of Invest in caring not killing, excites not only enthusiasm but increasing support from many sectors of society, not only women but men who accept this political direction from women, and who reject exploitation and militarization.

As we confront the poisoning and destruction of the soil, the air, the water, the food, the climate and thus the health of the planet and of all of us, we are aware that our ongoing connection with the revolution in Venezuela is a power for all we do. In one country at least the creative efforts of the to reshape the whole society from the bottom up are being supported and strengthened by its president Hugo Chávez, the ‘president of the poor’. And that begins with women.

On IWD stop the world and change it. For an economy at the service of human beings and the planet, invest in caring not killing!

The Western Mother's Burden

While Madonna and Angelina swoop in to rescue children from the so-called Third World, Salma offers up breast milk a-la-drive-thru.

I so want to see Salma Hayek's breastfeeding moment as an act of kindness and solidarity...

It just seems to me that the colonial project where White women were cast as "mothers of the nation," for instance in the colonization of Canada, has morphed into the imperial project where Western women are cast as "mothers of the globe."

Interestingly, Salma Hayek narrates a Pamper's commercial  for the Pampers “1 Pack = 1 Vaccine” program – a partnership with UNICEF. Supposedly, for each pack of "specially marked" Pampers diapers and wipes that one buys during a promotion period, Pampers donates the cost of one vaccine to UNICEF.

Hoyden About Town already says it all in her blog entry on this commercial titled 'White Babies Saving the World, One Nappy at a Time."

No wonder I’m so tuckered out all the time. It is very difficult being white. We have a lot of work to do and that work starts young. White babies are saving the world even while they are wetting their nappies. That’s just how it is when you’re white, you’re always on duty. We don’t just buy any nappies for our babies, we buy special nappies from a company that puts tiny, almost insignificant, amounts towards vaccines for those other babies. We like to combine our philanthropy with our grocery shopping, it saves time and it helps capitalism, which is our way of also bringing freedom to the world. We’re helping all you black people, brown people, yellow people, we don’t have time to learn all your “nationalities” so we just like to think of you as the people of the rainbow, and we love to think of you in costume, your national dress is so cute. And how cute are your babies, we love your babies? Sooo cute.

Colonialism, slavery, exploitation of natural resources, missionaries, political interference, the arbitrary re-zoning of borders, sex tourism, cultural imperialism.. and 5 cents with every pack of Pampers nappies towards your vaccine program. Rainbow people, you’re welcome!

What else can I say?

Bright Spots in Dark Times

The New Year seemed to stumble in through crises...from the attacks in Mumbai, to the uprising in Greece, and most recently Israel's brutal disciplining of Gaza...it is as though the world is writhing in pain and desperation to escape its suffocating rule.

The local news in Calgary reported four murders at the start of the year...and it seemed like various tragedies swept Canada...and the weather has remained bitterly cold as though nature condemns us.

I have been turning away from the news and finding comfort in my personal life and in various distractions...

We watched Ghost Town the other evening. It is a charming film and Ricky Gervais gives a hilarious performance.

I have also been enjoying video clips of Mike Gravel. You can watch him here when he starts talking candidly about U.S. imperialism in response to a question about Iran. It is simply freaky to see the stark truth on any mainstream programming. You can also watch his very funny account of how he got the Pentagon Papers into the public record. This is fascinating! If you have not watched it, WATCH IT.

Finally, here is some interesting work by an artist named Andrea Dezso. Her collection "Lessons From My Mother" consists of 48 individually framed cotton squares embroidered with "advice" passed on from her mother such as: My mother claimed that men will like me more if I pretend to be less smart."

Well, it is time for a cup of tea...I wish all my readers a bearable if not bright New Year.

Listen bitch, I said I'm a feminist.

This cartoon pretty much sums up my thoughts on the guys who dismissed the feminist blogosphere, adding insult to injury with their defense of the botched job of selecting candidates for the 'best feminist blog' category of the Canadian Blog Awards.

My thanks and votes go out to all the great feminist bloggers in Canada who have strengthened the presence of feminism in the blogosphere. You have enriched my perspectives and have been a great source of support as I've muddled my way through the blogging world over the past few years.

I will kill the campus pro-lifers and eat their hearts...

...then you can burn me on a stake and resume the witch hunts.

The pro-life campus club raises its ugly head each year. This year, students and staff are being treated to a lovely display of large signs with graphic images comparing abortion to genocides such as the Holocaust or Rwanda; it is titled the Genocide Awareness Project.

The U of C agreed to the display as long as the signs were faced inward in a circle. One pro-lifer whines to the news that this suppression of freedom of speech is akin to making Black people sit at the back of the bus.

Ugh.

Nigel Hannaford of the Calgary Herald joins the chorus of whining:

For, as on the other five times in the past three years, the U of C is doing everything it can to discourage it. Why?

Who knows? It's no good asking the U. of C. comm people, who, having released a carefully worded statement a week ago, announced yesterday that's all they're saying.

The closest the university came to explaining itself was that it "is taking steps to limit the risk of a confrontation on campus,"which seems a tad disingenuous. If it's a riot they're worried about, it didn't happen the first five times --unless you call some heated arguments a riot--so why would it expect one Wednesday, when the pro-life kids want to set up their display? And if someone did start throwing the exhibits around, who should be restrained --that person, or the people with the display?

Let's just forget that these photos are a manifestation of hatred against women; may revictimize some women; remind women of the active oppression that we face as well as our history of social control, oppression and GENOCIDE also known as a the witch hunts. (Hey, weren't those led by the morally righteous too?!)

But, seriously, let's forget all of that.

I promise to kill the pro-lifers and eat their hearts. Now, the U of C has a legitimate fear of a riot; the pro-lifers can crawl back to their altars; and we can all get on with the very busy end of semester.

Amen.

Links:

'U of C Pro-Life Activists Risk Penalties' by Sarah McGinnis via the Calgary Herald

'U of C Should Say What It Really Fears from Pro-Life' by Nigel Hannaford via the Calgary Herald

Fertile 4 Ever

When I go to bed tonight, will I dream of my giant unborn baby? She weighs on my mind more and more these days. I can hear her calling me: "MAMA!" She needs to be fed. She needs to be clothed. She needs to be bathed and rocked and tucked in to sleep. She needs rides to piano practice. She needs to go back-to-school shopping. She needs help with math and social studies. She is a big bloody financial drain and pain-in-the-ass who won't stop yelling: "I need to be born!"

I yell at her, "Shut the hell up. I'll have you when I can. What do you expect? I'm in grad school. I'm broke. I have yet to secure a father for the love of Jesus. I'll have you when I have you."

Or, maybe I won't.

The only sure thing is that this issue will always be in-my-face, from Addison's lone egg on Grey's Anatomy to a weeping Jennifer in Juno to Tina Fey's search for her Baby Mama.

According to 'Beating the Biological Clock', the issue became more in-your-face of American women in 2001 when the American Society for Reproductive Medicine launched PSAs on the sides of buses:

As you read this, women in Seattle, Chicago and New York are being reminded that they are not getting any younger every time a bus goes by bearing an ad declaring: "Advancing Age Decreases Your Ability to Have Children. Infertility is a disease affecting 6.1 million people in the United States." And in case the No. 6 whizzes by too fast to read the text, it's hard to miss the eerie graphic -- an upside-down baby bottle shaped like an hourglass.

Yes, Virginia, women in their 30s and 40s are likely to have a harder time conceiving and bearing children than their younger counterparts. That is the primary message of an information campaign launched this month by the American Society for Reproductive Medicine (ASRM). The medical group has also created ads about the risks associated with weight, smoking and sexually-transmitted disease, along with a companion website, www.protectyourfertility.org.

But the focus on these other risk factors seems like little more than padding around the very loaded issue of the biological clock. Already, the campaign has been covered by the Today show, National Public Radio, the Los Angeles Times, and, most alarmingly as a Newsweek cover story bearing the headline, "Should You Have Your Baby Now?"

The funny thing is, this is not a society where women are out of tune with their ticking. Even Rachel on Friends dumped her adorable 24-year-old boyfriend when she hit 30 last season. Time to stop fooling around, she lamented, and get down to the very serious business of finding the Father of Her Children. The storyline (unlike most elements of the wildly popular sitcom) was actually quite plausible. So, one has to ask: What makes a group of fertility doctors think women need to be reminded of something they can't seem to get off their minds?

For those who are single, or in uncommitted relationships, hitting 30 has become one of our culture's continental divides. On the twentysomething side, women are reassured that they have plenty of time to worry about settling down and starting a family. Pass 30, and the reminders are everywhere that it's one big downhill slide toward biological irrelevance.

Alarmed by the growing number of women seeking their services, the fertility doctors say they fear that science is viewed as a reproductive safety net in today's society. Features about older celebrity moms and tales of medically fostered triplets and quintuplets have grown commonplace. But the flip side of these technological triumphs is rarely newsworthy: Approximately one in three women over 35 trying to conceive will have trouble with her fertility.

Talk to women of childbearing age, and it's hard to figure out what is more frustrating -- this biological bind or the fact that a group of (mostly male) doctors feels compelled to remind them of it by way of bus-size ads.

"It irritates me that the whole conversation is about women," says Nancy Watzman, a 36-year-old Denver writer and researcher. "It's not that women are blameless, but how can we leave out men when we're talking about having children?"

Watzman, who was married this year and wants children, says she is "hyper-aware" of the need to get pregnant soon. As for waiting until her late 30s to begin a family, Watzman is like most of her educated, professional peers in that it was never an intentional plan. It is just how things worked out.

In a world where four-plus years of college is usually followed by many more of working to establish demanding careers, gain some financial security, and find the right partner, marriage and family are simply not in the picture for many twentysomething women. And even when it is, as Watzman says, "It's not like there are lots of 28-year-old guys out there chomping at the bit to reproduce."

...

Has more opportunity left women with fewer choices? "It scares the hell out of me when I think about trying to balance my job with motherhood," says Noelle DeBruhl, 38, whose job as a television editor routinely includes 60-hour weeks.

"Professional women have an untenable choice between their own drive and status gained through work, versus giving that up for the satisfaction of being with their kids," adds Haimes, who took off a year-and-a-half to be with her son.

"Everyone knows there is really no support for working mothers in this country," says DeBruhl. "I'd like to see a bus ad about that."

The fertility buzz goes on with articles ranging from advice on protecting your fertility to the blatant asking: "Hey Lady! What Will it Take to Make You Breed?".

Of course, while middle-class women in the so-called Global North are cheered on to breed, Western-backed NGOs teach women of the "Third World" so-called "family planning". 

Meanwhile, capitalists  salivate over the booming baby industrial complex. I can only imagine what "Extended Fertility" plans to make off of wannabe moms in the coming years with the implicit promise of fertility-for-life packaged neatly in its logo: an egg sporting the infinity sign.

 "Baby," I say. "I'm trying to have you, but not under the coercion of the State or at the hands of fertility profiteers...So, soon...Hang on and cross your fingers that your angry mama has a national child are program at her service by 2013."

Link:

'Beating the Biological Clock' by Christine Triano, Alternet

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