Word: childlessness
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...fact that "God," evidently arbitrarily, refuses to help Yerma calls sharply into question the idea of a just and merciful God; the notion that Yerma ought to accept her "fate" as a childless woman is caught up in her husband's insistence that she accept her "woman's place" within the walls of her house, never straying outside to the wild world that tempts her mysteriously. Garcia Lorca's complaints against the oppression of women come through sharply in some of the ideas which Yerma herself embodies: when Juan suggests that she resign herself to being childless, she reproaches...
...fact, Pinker, recently married for the second time, cheerfully confesses that he is so far voluntarily childless, thus flouting the evolutionary imperative to spread his own genes. "By Darwinian standards," he writes, "I am a horrible mistake. But I am happy to be that way, and if my genes don't like it, they can jump in the lake...
...result. As for predicting people's reactions, most preliminary hypotheses have been replaced by new ones. Contrary to expectations, for instance, married people have a harder time coping with bad news than singles (perhaps they worry about becoming a burden to their spouse); parents weather bad news better than childless adults (maybe the childless are newly disturbed by thoughts of never having a child...
Wealth is a relative thing. We can all agree that Bill Gates has it and that the typical bus driver does not. But in between, much depends on individual circumstances. It's no stretch to interpret $100,000 as a lot of money for a childless couple in Louisville, Ky., where life is good and the cost of living is low. But that same money disappears fast for a two-earner family in a high-cost city like New York, Chicago or Los Angeles, with three children approaching college age and parents who may need financial help...
...repeated, obsessive references to her reproductive surgeon betray the narrator's deepest concern without, apparently, her being aware of the disclosure. Whatever Dr. Loquesto was supposed to do for her somehow did not work, in a way she doesn't explain. She is 40 and childless, and Hecht has subtly grounded all these remarkably funny and engaging stories in the fundamental sadness of mortality...