In response to seemingly ubiquitous fertility threats, Parlour magazine's Nakia D. Hansen offers facts.
Is it just me or are a lot of prime time television shows airing episodes where a female character is struck deaf and dumb by the loud ticking of her biological clock? Has this always been a go-to plot contrivance or am I'm just noticing it now because I'm 31 and at least one of my peers is posting a birth announcement to Facebook every other month? The mass influx of baby shower invites aside, I find it rather offensive that TV shows are slamming this narrative down our throats. While there are real and significant concerns about fertility as we age, I see the media playing a role in the hysteria, desperation, and ultimate "settling" that a number of women engage in whether intentional or not. Think about it, what sparked the last conversation or serious thought you had about fertility, your Ob-gyn or the hens on Basketball Wives?
Biological clock episodes are everywhere, it seems. Last summer on Lala's Full Court Life, Lala Anthony struggled to reconcile her desire to focus on a career that's gaining steam with her desire (and perceived duty) to have a second child. On Chrissy and Mr. Jones, Chrissy, who is 41 years old, reveals her reservations about parenting with a partner as laissez-faire as Jim. When she considers freezing her eggs so that she'll have more time to decide, she gets the gas face from Mama Jones, Jim, and her girls. Even the comedy New Girl starring hipster fairy child Zooey Deschanel showed her character Jess losing her [s—t] because her gynecologist friend told her that by the time a woman turns 30, 90% of her eggs will be gone. GONE!
I bet you can think of some shows you saw this year with similar story lines but you can just as easily turn to real life for examples too.
Read Nakia D. Hansen's entire piece at Parlour magazine.
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