My new favorite comedy writer, Nancy Gibbs of Time Magazine, wrote a brilliantly hilarious piece on Nadya Suleman, the woman who recently gave premature birth to octuplets. In the article, Gibbs says we should take it easy on the mother – she only wanted children, is that a crime?
Gibbs goes on to compare completely different scenarios of mothers who had multiple babies in the recent past through invitro fertilization. Gibbs cites the national celebrity and financial support of the parents of the McCaughey septuplets… and the Duggar family, who recently had their 18th child, as examples of how society should react to Nadya Suleman’s miracle octuplets – with donated minivans, baby food and diapers and even a call from the President (like you just won the Superbowl!). A big difference? The McCaugheys and Duggars had a support system in place, two parents and incomes that could financially support the children.
Gibbs tries her best to glamorize Suleman as a dedicated, devoted mother who fought the odds and societal shame to live out her dream of having a hotel full of children. She even talks of how Suleman could pass for Angelina Jolie! Really?
Gibbs then goes on the attack, saying that “cultural hypocrisy” is the real crime here. Just because a mother who isn’t working, who already has 6 children under the age of 8, living in her mother’s house, without a father, doesn’t justify society’s reaction of horror she says.
To Gibbs I say, “Pipe it!” There’s a reason why society is outraged. This woman had these children (all 14 of them) for the completely wrong reasons. Society is right to be angry at this woman. She isn’t able to support them, has caused undue stress on her mother (who has lost her first home while trying to care for Nadya’s first 6 children), and is going to try to raise 14 children without any apparent father figure in their lives. These children have an uphill battle to be sure. Heck yes society is mad and we’ve got it right for once. Societal shame is a powerful tool and should and must be used in situations like this to make people in the future think long and hard about doing something as foolish as this again.
