don't know if i can or should speak on this topic given i'm not a woman, but since i've been reading the broadchurch novelisation, the way they depict beth's pregnancy kind of icks me out and makes me uncomfortable.
losing your child (danny) is traumatising. losing a child while knowing you're pregnant has got to be so fucking stressful and difficult, i can't even imagine.
beth's words and inner monologue show just how much she's struggling. she found out she's pregnant, lost her son, then found out her husband with whom she's been since she was 15 is / was cheating on her on the night of her son's murder. so i think she has every reason to feel conflicted about the pregnancy. the way i read all of this and her subsequent thoughts is that she doesn't want the child but everyone around her, starting with mark, and also chloe (and rev paul coates as well) heavily imply she ought to keep the pregnancy. and whenever she expresses doubts, they try to change her mind / speak to her in such a manipulative manner in my opinion, that she eventually changes her mind.
like, here's an example:
"i feel disloyal," she [beth] says, hand on the buckle of her seat belt. "and i don't know if i want to see it. i want to want it, but i don't. my heart's still full of danny. there's no room for another baby."
"there will be-" begins mark.
"mark, stop telling me how i'm going to feel," she says. "'cause you have no idea, and no ability to understand. shutting this out is not an option for me. i can't do that boxing things off like you do. i have to carry a life in me. for another six months. feeding off me, breathing from me, sharing my blood. i can't let danny go."
mark thumbs the line of her cheekbone. "don't load it with everything. just let it be what it is."
she nods for his benefit. she knows that he's right, but her heart hasn't caught up with her head yet. the longer this goes on, the more she fears that it never will.
this is just the most recent example that i've come across. i don't care what someone decides to do regarding their pregnancy. but this just feels coercive.
this is just a paragraph or so later:
"all's well," says the sonographer. "everything's where it should be. do you want to look at the screen?"
beth's instinct is to say no, but mark says yes for both of them and slowly the monitor is turned their way.
i mean just fuck off mark. you should be the last person to tell her what to do, especially since you cheated on her because she was "too familiar". just fuck right off.
