Want to do something to help stop the tradwife pipeline btw? Include mothers in your feminism. Hold space for women and others who are experiencing pregnancy or motherhood. Listen to their concerns about and unique perspectives on things like universal childcare, bodily autonomy, healthcare. Hold men who disrespect, sexualize, fetishize, shame or harass pregnant women and mothers accountable. Advocate for the right to nurse in public. Advocate for bodily autonomy within the healthcare field. Listen to women and birthing parents who have birth trauma. Listen to women who have undergone things like “the husband stitch”, or medically unnecessary c-sections, or who were given drugs without consent by doctors and nurses violating their birth plan. Advocate for resources to promote an end to the high rates of maternal mortality in the US. Get to know a woman who has children. Get to know the person she is. Know about her likes and interests and hobbies. Unlearn the stigma in your head which makes you see pregnant women as “ruined” or “tainted” and mothers as devoid of individual personhood.
As a leftist I will always advocate for the needs of mothers and their children. I refuse to let the right attempt to manipulate people by using the “we’re the only ones who care about mothers and children” talking point. I refuse to let my fellow leftists and progressives continue to enjoy complacency in their exclusion of these two marginalized groups.
this also means welcoming children at your events and/or offering free childcare. childcare is expensive and many mothers (much moreso than many fathers) can't participate in our movements unless we participate in looking after their kids.
And for the love of all that is holy, STOP IT with the antinatalism! Too often I hear arguments along the lines of, "humanity needs to die out anyway." No, the human race is a beautiful thing, and those who freely choose to perpetuate it should be celebrated, not demonized. Our population is not spiraling out of control, that's a eugenicist myth.
When mothers see that the only people supporting their choice to have kids are right-wing pronatalists (who suck, don't get me wrong), what ideology do you think they're going to align with?
Stop fucking saying you hate kids.
