Why is comedian Chelsea Handler trying to convince women not to have children?

Chelsea Handler acted as host of Comedy Central’s The Daily Show last week and took the opportunity to spread her apparent attitude of absolute antipathy toward children and childbearing. She began by erroneously labeling newborn babies as nothing more than strangers to their mothers, took a sexually-charged dig at the pope, and concluded that childless women are the saviors of the world.

Motherhood is a gift

“In America — and honestly, everywhere — motherhood is treated as a woman’s central purpose in life. As if our destiny is to let a tiny stranger rip a hole through our Pikachu from the inside out,” she said.

A woman’s baby is hardly a ‘stranger’ to her. She has been carrying and caring for her baby for months, carefully making decisions in her undelivered child’s best interest and bonding through speaking to her child, singing to her child, and feeling his or her kicks. Having children is a natural part of overall human existence, even if some either choose to remain childless or struggle with infertility. Handler, who supports abortion and has had at least two herself, is not raising children and is clearly not the authority on motherhood or children — yet she is full of opinions on both.

She continued, “Look, I have infinite respect for moms, but motherhood is hard. It’s so hard it even broke Marie Kondo. Tidying up was her life’s work. Then she has kids and she was like, ‘F— it. Living in squalor is fine.’ So it really shouldn’t be surprising that some women are not signing up. But many people aren’t just surprised, they’re horrified. Childless women are seen as unfulfilled, unhappy. Even the Pope has slammed us, saying that not having children is ‘selfish.'”

She then made inappropriate sexual remarks about the pope, Tucker Carlson, and Senator J.D. Vance before stating, “Instead of shaming childless women for what we’re doing in the country, you should be thanking us. We are saving society.”

This anti-motherhood attitude is the result of decades of negative stereotypes about motherhood, depicting it as nothing but exhaustion, messy hair, dirty dishes, screaming children, and spit-up-stained clothing. Society has reduced motherhood to a form of slavery. Effective motherhood and fatherhood require the de-prioritization of self to put another’s needs before your own. This is something that requires sacrifice and strength.

Perhaps women like Marie Kondo simply realized that they’d rather prioritize spending their time with their children — who grow so quickly and then leave home — rather than prioritize a perfect, spotless, organized house free of clutter. In other words, motherhood didn’t “break” Marie Kondo — it showed her what the best and most important things truly are.

While it is not inherently selfish to not be a mother, Handler’s given reasons for not birthing children appear to come from a place of selfishness. And it appears that she not only opposes motherhood for herself, but for others.

Possible trauma from abortion

However, Handler is actually not childless, as mentioned. She became pregnant twice at 16 and had two abortions in one year. Though she initially wanted to keep her first baby, her parents took her for an abortion at Planned Parenthood, telling her she was incapable of parenting. She appears to have had the second abortion of her own free will.

Perhaps this is the deep-rooted reasoning behind Handler’s seemingly obsessive, negative focus on children and motherhood. She had her first chance at motherhood stolen from her. Though she doesn’t appear to regret her abortions, admitted regret is not necessary for the existence of trauma.

Handler also recently used her friends, brother, and their children as punch lines. She spoke of her friends, who, in their 40s, “accidentally get pregnant.”

“[A]nd they’re like, ‘Uhh, I guess I’ll have baby.’ It’s like, ‘Hey, b—-, get an abortion while you still can, okay?'” she said.

She continued, “I was with my brother the other day and I said, ‘Why are you even a parent?’ I said, ‘You’re not very good at it.’ He said, ‘Chelsea, I had to think about my legacy.’ ‘Who the f— are you to think about your lega–? Who do you think you are that people are waiting to see what you leave behind on this earth? Your legacy is that you’re my f—— brother.'”

Handler, told she was not up to the task of parenting, is now telling her brother the same, and in a complete moment of self-absorption, “joked” that the only part of his life that matters is that he is her brother.

The life of a childless woman

On The Daily Show, Handler said childless women are saving society, and also claimed, “We [childless women] are more likely to give our money to charity. We have a lower carbon footprint. We’re the reason there are fewer screaming children on airplanes, in movie theaters, and restaurants. And every baby we don’t give birth to is one less baby that could grow up to be the next Elon Musk. And guess how many children he has? Nine! You better bring them all to Mars with you, buddy, okay?”

In reality, celebrities like Handler have a far larger carbon footprint than the average American. As reported by Time, “The average person produces about 7 metric ton[s] of CO2 annually. Meanwhile, celebrities have emitted an average of more than 3,300 metric tons from their private jets alone so far this year, according to Yard.”

In addition, Handler shared a video on Twitter last week called Day in the Life of a Childless Woman in which she spoke about not having kids to take to school, masturbating, going back to bed for hours, being able to do “whatever the f— I feel like.” She said she can fly to Paris for a croissant and meditate on the plane because she has “no screaming kids.” She then talks about having sex with someone she has only met in an app.

None of them sound like the actions of a woman concerned with “saving society” — only with fulfilling her own physical desires, dehumanizing children, and degrading motherhood.

Our culture is becoming more and more anti-child and anti-human, argued Patheos. Handler is promoting these discriminatory ideas and helping to shift decades of objectification of women on to children. To her, children are nothing more than problems and annoyances that should be wiped out of existence before they are born. Those who are born are referred to as obstacles to a woman’s true success and joy.

It’s heartbreaking knowing that the fuel behind Handler’s anti-child mindset could be her own abortions at an impressionable and vulnerable age.

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