A new documentary says society is biased in favour of those who have babies. The film’s maker and others explain why they have chosen to be child-free
Western society has enthusiastically shaken off lots of the old, restrictive taboos that once policed behaviour. In fact, today the very idea of being “normal” has been exposed as a bit of a sham when it comes to sexuality, brain type, or even “life goals”. But there is one area where the pressure to conform is still woven through our expectations and conversations, as well as through the marketing images that surround us all: the ideal of motherhood.
Now the American film-maker Therese Shechter is tackling what she believes is a pervasive bias in favour of women having babies. Her provocative new documentary, My So-Called Selfish Life, has already been admired at festival screenings, with Ms magazine describing it as a “striking and imaginative documentary, which addresses [an] oft-overlooked facet of reproductive justice”. On May 6, it will go out to the wider world on Show&Tell, a streaming platform for documentaries.Although Shechter never disparages parenthood, she knows it will ruffle feathers.
