White American Godthic

My mother's response upon hearing that I had eloped last Summer to get married in Las Vegas to a guy whose name she still cannot spell was, "Why?". I suppose how else would a woman who was an MD in the 50s when the 'ideal' woman was not one who worked, much less had a profession or career, respond to a daughter who has managed to make a decent living without accumulating debt, a man or children along the way nearing her 4th decade on the planet. I have one answer, marriage legitimises a whole host of stuff in the US, ask anyone who is in a relationship where marriage is not recognised, especially if you are of two or more nationalities.

These days there is a whole backlash to marriage and kids whose most vocal proponents are obnoxious. I have no ticking clock and found The Baby Panic an interesting read while, at the same time, I kept wondering why we keep going through this same shit every damn decade. It is such an individual act with so many mitigating circumstances I bristle at those who would paint it so broadly as a "crisis". Hey, we don't have decent public education, socialised healthcare, adequate social services and families who have to work at 2 or more jobs just to make ends meet....why is it that a bunch of white girls with an education who aren't spawning a "crisis"? Ask Pat Buchanan I suppose. The Bush Administration is big on getting welfare people into marrying because we all know how well marriage solves all the social and financial problems people may have as they ride off into the sunset...

I'm tired of a world that just doesn't mind it's own damn business and be happy when people are doing their own thing instead of trying to mold them into their own narrow religious idea of the world. It's like being the poor singleton at a smug marrieds dinner party when they start asking you if you have a boyfriend or if you're pregnant...be married, have kids, just shut up and no more conversations about baby poop in mixed company. The human race won't be extinct anytime soon if a couple million white girls decide to skip having kids or don't get married!