"Parents magazine described this as birth 'in a truly organic fashion—no pain relief, no doctors, no hospital … just a woman, a stream, and the miracle of life.' A far cry from feminism’s past, this treatment glamorized one woman’s clearly exceptional story, setting it up as a sort of Whole Foods ideal for all.... Recording your experience of birth is at once a feminist act and now potentially one intended for mass consumption via a Reddit forum or blog. Writing, and even sharing, your birth story is also now commodified as one of a number of things you 'should' do as a successful new parent, like having a baby shower or assembling a baby book.... Diverse, honest accounts of birth on the one hand and the imperative to tell your story the right way—perhaps even to birth the right way—on the other make for awkward companions. Together they are products of an era in which feminist progress sits alongside new modes of packaging and commodifying our intimate lives for public consumption. The birth story, like feminism, has reached an uncomfortable phase in its history. Now, as feminists, our task is to free the birth story from the demands of crafting a successful personal brand, and find a way to return it to its highest purpose: integrating an intense and singular experience into the story you tell yourself about your life, and connecting all of that with the experiences of others."
From "How the Internet Ruined the Birth Story/A practice with feminist roots has become branding, like everything else" by Sarah Stoller (Slate).
I think the point she's trying to make is that on the internet, women glamorize childbirth, and it's crowding out feminist critique. And it's not just childbirth. It's everything about the lives of women. Too many of us are using our access to social media to try to look cool and beautiful and virtuous, and it's ruined the pursuit of feminist goals.
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"Now, as feminists, our task is to free the birth story from the demands of crafting a successful personal brand, and find a way to return it to its highest purpose: integrating an intense and singular experience into the story you tell yourself about your life, and connecting all of that with the experiences of others."
Hoo-boy.
Hard to tell if there is an actual point under all the flummery (deadly serious and heavy-handed flummery ... the worst kind), and harder still to believe that any such point is not a cliche.
--- Together they are products of an era in which feminist progress sits alongside new modes of packaging and commodifying our intimate lives for public consumption. The birth story, like feminism, has reached an uncomfortable phase in its history. Now, as feminists, our task is to free the birth story from the demands of crafting a successful personal brand, yada yada yada YADDA!
A very uncomfortable phase, many would agree. Why not try just shutting up for a while?
This (or last) week's NYer waded into child-rearing, grounding all helicopter moms.
And dads - gawd, I almost forgot.
Is this from The Babylon Bee?
"Too many of us are using our access to social media to try to look cool and beautiful and virtuous, and it's ruined the pursuit of feminist goals."
So feminist goals are uncool, ugly, and immoral. Got it.
It must be hell for "feminists" always trying to ensure that they're doing every single thing the proper "feminist" way.
May I ask what said goals may be? Is there a list?
If there had been a saltie (saltwater crocodile) in that stream the video could’ve gone viral for a very different reason.
Nagging is the feminist goal. Feminism has been marching in place for 200 years.
Old joke
I used to have three theories on child-raising. Now I have three children and no theories.
Note to the baby. Your mother didn’t care whether you were strangled by a nuchal cord during your birth, or whether there was some other medical issue that necessitated a obstetrician or at least a well-trained midwife to save your infant life by properly dealing with it.
There's a reason why most people give birth on a sterile bed and not in a germ-filled stream. This woman exposed her baby and lady parts to bacteria, viruses, and parasites. What kind of diseases will the baby now carry? But, it's for the feminine power!
Yeah, think of an interesting and unusual word, if you look it up, the first thing you will get will be a Wikipedia article about a band that used it as a name.
Do fish like placenta?
Every day, a woman squats in the turnip patch & pushes out a baby. Is no biggie.
I think the point she's trying to make is that on the internet, women glamorize childbirth
A woman's proven fertility has always been glamorous.
Childbirth should be celebrated. One of my biggest beefs with feminism is its assault on the most female thing of all, giving birth.
My mother, who gave birth to 4 kids, said to never be a martyr to the cause. She had the first 2 naturally with no pain relief, the last two with an epidural. The epidural was preferable. Many women do not have easy births and should not judge themselves if they take pain relief. We don't do open heart surgery the way they did it in the 1800s, why should women be tortured with pain during childbirth. (Quotes from mom)
I had a C-Section, never felt a thing. Although talking to the surgeon while she was operating was really weird. Making my poor husband watch was worse still....
Also, I am much happier in a clean, sterile environment. I didn't even like the concept of birthing rooms (Where does the messy stuff go?) Streams were where we got water to look at under microscopes. The chance of infection is huge.
Kid is eight going on nine. In three years time the kid will likely find the video on the net. I'm sure that is going to make for a wonderful mom and child conversation.
“Too many of us are using our access to social media to try to look cool and beautiful and virtuous, and it's ruined the pursuit of feminist goals.” Virtuous? Seriously?
It is unclear from the behavior of women what feminist goals might be other than to abort babies and elect lefties and losers to public office. They certainly don’t include protecting children from sexual exploitation, woke lunacy and incompetent teachers, nor do they include preserving womens’ hard earned recognition as athletes for actual women.
I saw the video years ago and can't say I thought much of it. Everything seemed to work out fine so it's hard to get worked up about all the things that could have gone wrong but didn't. And, I thought she was making a feminist statement so it's kind of funny to see feminists are upset about it. Man, orthodoxy sucks.
What doomed the river side birthing woman is that chose to keep it and she wasn't born a male.
My favorite birth story is in Kristan Lavransdatter, when she gives birth to her firstborn, Nikulaus. Harrowing.
"I think the point she's trying to make is that on the internet, women glamorize childbirth, and it's crowding out feminist critique."
Huh? Women celebrate what they do best, highlight the need for special rights (only we can have babies! only we get to decide when to kill them!), and monetize it. If that's not showing female agency, what does?
"It's everything about the lives of women."
Right. For example, YouTube is full of women doing womenly things. Women occupy that semi-public space. They assert themselves, as women. Many make money doing it. Yeah yeah, commoditizing women's experience is bad, bad, but from a certain feminist point of view, it is also empowering.
"Too many of us are using our access to social media to try to look cool and beautiful and virtuous, and it's ruined the pursuit of feminist goals."
Assuming feminism really meant rejecting capitalism and Western civ. If it meant giving equal rights and opportunities to women, and empowering them in their freely chosen pursuits, then there is nothing wrong with trying to look a certain way, particularly if it in fact promotes a sense of sisterhood. As it often does.
I can't get too worked up about this. After all, if men could give birth, they would do so in the garage, after consulting a YouTube how-to video.
TheOne Who Is Not Obeyed 11:51 AM FTW
As someone once said, men shouldn't even try to understand women.
Only women understand other women, and women tend to hate each other : )
The internet didn't "ruin" anything.
Dopamine mining and seeking validation points were always there.
The internet just amplified a naturally existing state in many narcissists.
So, going back to our primitive pioneer days of home both is the new feminism? Who knew?
Although highly doubtful giving birth I a STREAM was part of the past equation.
E. Coli anyone?? Can’t feminists put anyone else’s regard and welfare above “the cause”?
Home birth*
I focus &type worse at night, apparently.
As punishment, Stream Mother should be forced to watch all 11 series of Call The Midwife. PBS has been carrying them.
Wikipedia:
"...Call the Midwife achieved high ratings in its first series, making it the most successful new drama series on BBC One since 2001.[2] Nine more series of eight episodes each have aired subsequently year-on-year, along with an annual Christmas special broadcast every Christmas Day since 2012. It is also broadcast in the United States on the PBS network, with the first series starting on 30 September 2012.[3]
Critical reception has been mostly positive, and the series has won numerous awards and nominations.[4] It has been praised for tackling topical subjects and contemporary social, cultural and economic issues, including nationalised healthcare, infertility, teen pregnancy, adoption, the importance of local community, miscarriage and stillbirths, abortion and unwanted pregnancies, birth defects, poverty, common illnesses, epidemic disease, prostitution, incest, religion and faith, racism and prejudice, same-sex attraction and female genital mutilation."
It's interesting, seeing the author's awkward and contradictory efforts to accommodate trans terminology. A good portion of the article relies on the role of feminism in changing birth practices, and the author does talk about women but more often speaks of "birthing parents." In some sentences she switches between the two for no discernable reason.
For example: "But in practice, the birth stories we read or hear in the media tend to feature women narrating their stories with confidence—-birthing parents, in other words, who are in control, if only of their narratives. Refracted through 21st century culture, the feminist call for a more active, central role for birthing people in childbirth can counterintuitively make us feel like we are failing if our births do not feel wholly in our control or do not go to plan."
Too many of us are using our access to social media to try to look cool and beautiful and virtuous, and it's ruined the pursuit of feminist goals.
Seems to me it just says that the pursuit of feminist goals is not of great importance to women. Other things matter more, even insignificant things.
“Every day, a woman squats in the turnip patch…”
So, not a cabbage patch, then?
90 percent of women could probably deliver like this without problems, but ten percent of them and/or their babies will die.
Let me count the ways: obstructed labor (resulting in a dead mom or kid, not to mention vesical vaginal fistula), post partum hemorrhage, retained placenta, perineal tears, endometritis/sepsis, and seizures (eclampsia) in mom..
But the biggest danger is to the kid: who might not breathe right away, or will develop sepsis, infected umbillicus in kid or neonatal tetanus...
I've seen all of these come into our hospital in Africa when the moms delivered at home with the traditional midwife, and why the maternal mortality remains high today in countries like the Philippines (where I now life) where semi trained midwives do deliveries in the home.
That is why many countries encourage birth in clinics, and in very poor countries like Afghanistan, lower maternal mortality by training traditional midwives in small things like washing one's hands, monitoring labor for problems and transfer, and giving medicine to stop post partum hemorrhage.
To appear in public media beyond birth, wedding and death announcements appears pridefully vain.
At least she didn't post a video of the conception.
"birthing people"
That awkward moment when you go back and forth, asking the question, "Verb or adjective?"
I've not watched the video. But I have seen my kids born. There's a reason that they held a bucket under my wife as my kids were born. I'm sure whoever uses that stream for a source of water was pleased with the blood and amniotic fluid that ended up in the stream....
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