I’ve always been annoyed at women giving birth to seven, eight kids at once. There are too many freakin’ people in the world, who do they think they are? But my annoyances is limited.
Other people in the past seem to have been less annoyed, and instead of being miffed they reward these baby factories. The family that has six or seven kids (or more) because of over-done fertility treatments (or some other mojo) gets free diapers, college funds are set up, and so on. They become heroes and society steps up to take care of their children.
I suppose that make sense for the sake of the innocent bystanders … the kids … but again, we are rewarding, at least to some extent, excess. Right?
Well, I was fascinated and even a bit shocked to read today that society is not stepping up to help the family that just bred a litter of octuplets. Here is an example of one of these stories, and an explanation (which I think is wrong) for this new phenomenon of shunning the litter bearers:
Where is the unlimited supply of diapers, formula and baby wipes? The free van? The brand-new house?
Women who give birth to six, seven or eight babies are often showered with dazzling gifts from big corporations, local businesses and strangers. But that is not happening with the Southern California mother who delivered octuplets last week.
The news that she is a single mother with six other children — and that all 14 were conceived by having embryos implanted — seems to have turned off many people, and companies are not exactly rushing to get publicity by piling on the freebies.
source
When I first heard about this without knowing any details at all, I figured that the recent downturn in the economy (The Bush Depression) had caused a shift in people’s opinions. Then I read the story further and discovered, as implied above and as demonstrated by other evidence, that this is probably a case of someone who is unhealthily obsessed with the act of popping out babies, and who may have inappropriately used fertility resources to produce a very large number of baby-popping experiences.
Then, I noticed the woman’s name and looked at pictures of her babies and discovered yet another reason why people might be mad at her: She, and/or one or more of the fathers, and certainly a sprinkling of the offspring, are NOT WHITE.
If this is a factor, then this situation is an example of the same kind of phenomenon we see with welfare stigma and similar social phenomena. We can celebrate the birth of babies, as long as they are more of us. But if someone is sprinkling the Fertility Mojo on a non-white woman to produce non-white babies, then that is cuckoldry, and there is nothing more infuriating than being cuckolded. In some legal systems of the recent past (and possibly present), if you killed someone who attempted to cuckold you, that would be a minor crime. Certainly, withholding a lifetime supply of free diapers is more sociall acceptable and not as severe, but similar.
So, which is it …
1) The economy, stupid?
2) OTT birthing is annoying?
3) The usual suspects feel cuckolded so they are mad at this mom and her hoard?
