Queen Kim Cattrall was a guest editor on the BBC radio show "Woman's Hour" and talked about the offense in being called a "childless" person. "Well, it’s the ‘less’ that is offensive, isn’t it?"“Child-less. It sounds like you’re less, because you haven’t had a child."
She talked about the ways she has supported young people in her life and how important that is. "I am not a biological parent, but I am a parent.""I have young actors and actresses that I mentor, I have nieces and nephews that I am very close to. There is a way to become a mother in this day and age which doesn't include your name on the child's birth certificate. You can express that maternal side, very clearly, very strongly. It feels very satisfying."
Kim had 2 marriages that she says were great but never reached the point of having children:
“I think for many women from my generation it wasn’t actually a conscious choice, it was a feeling of, ‘Well, I’m on this road, and things are going really well, and I’m very happy, and I’ll do it next year, I’ll do it in two years, I’ll do it in five years.""And then suddenly you’re in your early 40s and you’re thinking, ‘Mmm, maybe now?’ and you go to your doctor and she says to you, ‘Well yes, we can do this, but you start to become a bit of a science experiment here, because we have to find out how you can stay pregnant’."“I just thought, ‘I don’t know if I want it that much’."
She touched on the issues women face with being a working mother or being shamed for not having a child “I’m so glad that I’m not in a political job, because I would be judged even more harshly."“It would be, if I had children, could I do the job efficiently? And if I didn’t have children, I was a selfish bitch.” “The misogyny is rife in this area."“It’s, ‘You’re not really a woman. You didn’t really experience that.'"
“I just believe, and have always believed since my 40s, that there are many different ways to be a mum.”
ONTD, how do you feel about the term childless? If you're not planning on having children, do you feel judgement or shame from society? Did you know that almost 50% of women do not give birth?
Sources
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b069jf21
http://www.etonline.com/news/171968_kim_cattrall_explains_why_the_term_childless_is_offensive/