In a Newsweek article I found a women-Mamta Jhunjhun Wala, 42, of Mumbai who recalls herself facing the stigma of being unable to have children for the first 13 years of her marriage. “People ask a woman's name—and then, "How many children do you have?" When the woman answers "none," she says, "they don't know what they can talk to you about." (Karen 3) She faced the rejection from other women in her social circle that found it difficult to relate to her because she
didn’t have any children. It seems that her identity was based on the children she had. Having no children meant she didn’t have much of an identity to the other women without children.
Infertility can lead to some women feeling and being ostracized by other women for something that isn’t in their control . "People see them as having a "bad eye" that will make you infertile, too. Infertile women are considered inauspicious," says Inhorn. Other people simply "don't want to have them around at joyous occasions," says Frank van Balen, coauthor (with Inhorn) of "Infertility Around the Globe" and a professor in the department of social and behavioral sciences at the University of Amsterdam." (Karen 3) These infertile women are excluded from these occasions because others believe that they are like “bad luck”. That having them around
them is somehow going to negatively affect them. This makes those who suffer from infertility question why they deserved this. Why do they deserve to be treated differently from other women because of their inability to reproduce. This leads them to having feelings of “there’s something wrong with me.”
Having children and reproducing is something people see as a part of the normal process of life “Parenthood is encouraged and celebrated and the inability to fulfill these societal expectations can be devastating.” (The Stigma of Infertility). There is a type of pressure that people face to reproduce like from family and friends and it’s seen as the normal next step couples take in their
relationships but being unable to leads the couple facing infertility to doubt their place/role in society. They feel as if they don’t measure up to other women and couples and disappoints their expectations of wanting children and getting societal approval.
Women and couples suffering from infertility face a number of issues ahead including the stigma they face from society. Their inability to conceive children naturally is something that is out of their control. So they shouldn’t be ostracized and treated differently by others because of it. It is not a disease just something that is unfortunate that happens to 1 in every 10 couples.
Bibliography
Karen, Springen. "What it means to be a woman." Newsweek 15 September 2008: 3. Web. 6 Apr 2011.
Journey, fertility. "The stigma of infertility." Fertility journey n. pag. Web. 6 Apr 2011.
Women who have infertility are treated differently from women who can conceived. They are rejected from others and considered the bad in the bunch basically and become excluded from others.
ReplyDeleteWhen you talked about the woman from Mumbai and how she was impacted by the fact she couldn't have children for 13 years. She was rejected a lot by others and her identity was based on how many children she had.
It makes me think about my future and if i wasn't able to conceive any kids and how it would effect me as a person. I wouldn't want to be in that position such as that woman and feel as if i lost myself. Nobody deserves that.
Larche,
ReplyDeleteYou examined the importance of how women are viewed and treated if they are infertility.
One aspect that I particularly valued was when you spoke about. Mamta Jhunjhun Wala, and how she was treated by others being diagnosed with infertility. Just because she was different from most women, she wasn't accepted by other women just because she couldn't have babies made her less of a women.
A reason why your subject mattered to me was because it showed how society is shaped and how people's views on each other are easily changed just because they aren't they same as themselves or the majority.
-David.
Being unable to conceive causes the woman to feel as if she has no place in her society; she is constantly reminded of this by the disapproval of others. Even though this is a common case worldwide, much of the public doesn’t seem to approve the fact that it is not in the hands of the infertile woman for not having the ability to conceive.
ReplyDeleteEven though your project was short, it was really concise. You nailed down a number of interesting facts about our society today and how we behave in a negative manner towards others for no reason at all. The evidence you provided from different texts helped me realize that these are the bitter facts we need to face. It made me question what needs to be done in order to prevent this from spreading onto future generations.
Your project is important to me because is seems to prove that women need a slight imperfection in order to be referred to negatively. Why is this? I am sure that if a male had problems with impregnating a woman he wouldn’t be considered lacking much of anything. After reading through your project I was able to refer to a Pakistani drama I used to watch. In this drama a man married a woman, but failed to impregnate her. When his family noticed that his wife wasn’t becoming pregnant, they blamed it all on her for not being able to have a child. This was all done while they forced the man to marry another girl. I thought this connected to what you did your project on because women are always blamed for their slight imperfections, whereas men are always sugar coated to hide their imperfections.
I enjoyed reading your paper; I would have
loved it if you added more to it. Nice work.
Amber M.
Your post was a deep insightful look into not only the problem of infertility, but the stigma surrounding it. A line that struck me was; "Infertility can lead to some women feeling and being ostracized by other women for something that isn’t in their control . "People see them as having a "bad eye" that will make you infertile, too. Infertile women are considered inauspicious," says Inhorn. Other people simply "don't want to have them around at joyous occasions," This was very insightful and evokes anger from the readers, while we think it's outrageous to see infertile women in this light, we can't be sure exactly how we would feel with having people with this complication around our developing children. This project is important because it is really informative and covers a topic we hadn't considered throughout the unit.
ReplyDelete