Though we are eaten up of lice and worms, And though continually we bear about us A rotten and dead body, we delight To hide it in rich tissue: all our fear, Nay, all our terror, is lest our physician Should put us in the ground. 1
Voluntarily choosing not to have children is increasingly becoming a preferred life option in contemporary society. Yet there remains an inherent suspicion and pitying of women who do not follow what is still perceived, despite several waves of feminism, as their biological destiny. Such choices are considered 'unspeakable' by the dominant pronatalist discourse that currently presides in western advanced-capitalist society. This article attempts to challenge and reverse prescribed beliefs about motherhood and create a textual space for those who have been denigrated for choosing not to become mothers.
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