Pope Francis comments on parenthood are nothing new for …

CW: sexism/misogyny

People who choose not to have children are selfish, according to Pope Francis who must be something of an expert on the subject, having chosen not to have children himself.

Todaywe see a form of selfishness, the Pope told a general audience at the Vatican last week. We see that some people do not want to have a child. He specifically chastised couples who have pets but no children, something he claims diminishes us, and takes away our humanity.

This isnt the first time the Pope has scolded people who dont have children. In 2014, the pontiff warned that selfish childfree people would eventually succumb to the bitterness of loneliness.

Yet this rhetoric is nothing new for childfree people childfree women in particular, for whom normative gender roles create inextricable links between womanhood and motherhood.

Gender is not innate, but a culturally constructed class system in which the class of woman is fundamentally juxtaposed against and subjugated by the class of man. Central to this class system are conceptualisations of normative femininity, which are unquestionably bound to motherhood. Womens corporeal tie to children justifies an unequal and gendered division of labour and the naturalization of caregiving roles for women within the domestic sphere. Queer theorists also suggest that the social and political function of children is to regulate womens sexuality within a social order that mandates heteronormativity and procreation.

A 2018 study documented the negative perceptions and prejudice that childfree women face: they are overwhelmingly seen as selfish, dissatisfied, and cold. Childfree women have also elicited social reactions of disgust and moral outrage. The study cites research indicating that women without children face discriminatory outcomes in occupational and medical settings. Its common for physicians, for example, to deny a patient surgery on the assumption that a woman will change her mind about wanting children.

We dont have to look far to see these negative perceptions in action: former Australian prime minister Julia Gillard immediately comes to mind. Gillard endured years of sexism and misogyny for being a childfree woman in power. In 2007, former conservative senator Bill Heffernan described Gillard as unqualified for leadership because she was deliberately barren. In 2010, politician George Brandis maintained that Gillard was a one dimensional person who, because she had chosen not to have children, couldnt possibly understand former PM Tony Abbotts controversial argument that a womans virginity is a gift to give to her husband. Former Labor leader Mark Latham claimed that Gillard was wooden and lacked empathy because she had chosen not to have children.

Like Gillard, most childfree women are constantly expected to justify and explain themselves: to divulge their personal medical histories, to describe how the current economic climate is not conducive to child-rearing, to explain that childfree people tend to be happier than parents, to maintain that theyre not willing to become another maternal mortality statistic, to detail the gendered division of labour when not wanting children should itself be reason enough for not having them.

So perhaps, instead of scolding childfree couples, the Popes efforts would be better directed towards doing more for the secret children of not-so-celibate priests. Or towards re-examining the churchs own decidedly anti-family celibacy policies. Or towards having children of his own.

Image: Catholic Church England and Wales/ CC BY-NC-ND 2.0 via flickr

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Pope Francis comments on parenthood are nothing new for ...