Thread by @monaeltahawy

It is good to see articles about being childfree by choice. This one features mostly white people bbc.com/worklife/artic… h/t @rerutled #Childfree

I wrote this essay on being childfree by choice because we need to hear from more women of colour and women from different cultural and faith backgrounds as well as trans men and non-binary people who choose to be childfree. I have my own book planned. feministgiant.com/p/unmothering

I'm happy with the life I have created. I have never wondered what it would have been like to have children.

I say that because we often hear “you’ll regret it when it’s too late.” Well, here I am on the other side -- it is “too late” -- and I am here to say: I do not regret it

When I started saying in public lectures that I was childfree by choice, about 15 years ago, women would track me down in a corridor, backstage, or in the bathroom to whisper “Thank you. I have never heard another woman say that out loud before.” #Childfree

What would the freedom to choose, for all, look like?

It is taboo to say I own my body and that you will not enlist my womb for capitalism. You will be called “deficient” and “incomplete.” theguardian.com/world/2016/jun…

And sometimes the patriarchy will say the quiet part out loud--HAVE BABIES FOR THE ECONOMY...

washingtonpost.com/opinions/paul-…

...while ignoring what many who do indeed want to have babies have long been saying out loud—YOUR ECONOMIC POLICIES HAVE MADE IT IMPOSSIBLE FOR US TO HAVE BABIES TO BOOST AN ECONOMY THAT BENEFITS VERY FEW OF US.

We are more than walking wombs for capitalist patriarchy.

We are more than walking wombs for capitalist patriarchy.

We are more than walking incubators for ethno-supremacist patriarchy.

feministgiant.com/p/unmothering #Childfree

That drive to draft wombs into the service of producing workers is especially sharp in the U.S. and China, each vying for global leadership and each reeling from population decline and plummeting birth rates.

In the U.S.
apnews.com/article/birth-…

And in China
reuters.com/world/china/ch…

Notably, it is the decline in white babies in the United States and Han Chinese babies in China especially that worry the powers that be. We are more than walking incubators for ethno-supremacist patriarchy.
feministgiant.com/p/unmothering

In China, feminists who refuse to offer up their wombs to the patriarchy are punished for it.
politico.com/newsletters/po…

So threatening is the rejection of heterosexual sex, marriage, and child-rearing—an idea known as 6B4T, which originated from South Korea’s radical feminism movement—that feminist groups espousing it were abruptly kicked offline.
vice.com/en/article/epn…

Here's more about the South Korean radical feminist movement "4B" or the "Four Nos": no dating, no sex, no marriage, and no child-rearing.

tribuneindia.com/news/archive/w… #Childfree
tribuneindia.com/news/archive/w…

I am 55 years old and childfree by choice--happily so.

I wrote this for the daughter I did not have

Here is my essay in Arabic, translated by @itmeansagift
feministgiant.com/p/--6dd

I messed up this thread earlier so deleted and reposted a whole bunch of tweets!

Thank you all who commented and replied!

feministgiant.com/p/unmothering

All my essays are free to read and share.

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My essay on being childfree by choice is #8 most popular on FEMINIST GIANT.

#7 is my essay on my two abortions.

I'm about to start a new thread making the obvious link between the essays, but here's the essay on abortion in case you miss the new thread feministgiant.com/p/abortion-is-…