"I almost never wonder how I'd feel if I were a 29-year-old French woman. I fear the question would lead to dissatisfactions too profound (would I be eating oysters right now? Would my socks be cashmere? Would I know what existentialism meant no, I mean really know?). This morning, however, I did stop and give it some serious thought: specifically, how would I feel if my government wrote to me, reminding me to have children?"
"To get that letter from childless Macron would be like getting told off about your BMI by a nurse whose BMI is definitely the same as yours, if not greater: on the one hand, it's none of your business who has kids or what anyone's BMI is. But on the other, how about we just all keep out of each other's business? Luckily the letter is going to be sent out by the health ministry, and say what you like about ministries,"
"All that being said, the pressure on women is unlike that on men, for reasons that stretch into the thousands before you even get to which one of them has to give birth?. The age of 29 was presumably chosen symbolically, to flag that 30 is just around the corner, and that's when you're supposed to worry about your fertility."
The French health ministry plans to send letters to 29-year-olds reminding them to have children. The letters will be addressed to both men and women and will state that fertility is a shared responsibility. The choice of age 29 signals the impending age-30 fertility concern and places disproportionate pressure on women. The comparison to Macron's childlessness and the tone of the intervention evoke intrusive paternalism. Broader demographic aims to raise birth rates are contrasted with missing measures on structural supports such as housing affordability and comprehensive parental support.
Read at www.theguardian.com
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