Do we need terms like "child-free" and "childless"?

More from my conversation with the author of Others Like Me, Nicole Louie

Here’s part two of my conversation with writer Nicole Louie. Part one is here.

We discussed her long-term project curating lists of women who do not have children across film, books, photography and more. We also got into the debate about the usefulness of terms like “child-free” and “childless,” and whether it’s time to all get on the same team. More info about Nicole and her book, Others Like Me, is at the bottom of this post.

MC

Bad Mothers is about the ways our culture and society treats motherhood as a natural choice for women. Can you mention any other examples you've seen recently that sort of reinforce this idea that that's what women are meant to do; that it’s a natural next step for you know, 20 or 30-year-old women.

NL

Last night, I was reading a book called Walk the Blue Fields by Claire Keegan. Claire is my favorite writer alive. She's Irish, and it's the second time I've read this book. Last night, I read one of the stories about a woman whose biggest dream was to see the ocean. She kept asking her husband to take her and her husband repeatedly said he wouldn't. Then she has kid after kid and gets older, until the husband finally takes her one day. They travel the whole day and when they arrive, he says, “Okay, you have one hour, and if you're late, you find your way home on your own.”