BellaOnline Forums Relationships Married No Kids TV & Movies and representing the CF

I've recently been reading a lot of posts on here and actually posting replies when compelled to vent or to chime in here and there. I was just wondering if you all have noticed the same thing as me - that the childfree folks out there are severely under-represented on TV and in the movies...it just seems to be the case, IMO.

I guess maybe I'm more sensitive to it because I've been giving it a lot of thought lately as my DH and I have discussed it a little more than we used to. I wish that we truly could see characters on our favorite sitcoms, dramas, and in the movies that actually are CF and enjoy life for what it is, without having the eventual conversion into parenthood that almost always occurs.

Being that we are CF, only having 6 lovely cats and wonderful free time when we get home from work each day, we get to watch a lot of TV, which is great. We love many different shows - there just don't seem to be a lot of characters who are and remain CF for the length of a show's run. It's somehow not normal for CF characters to stay that way.

I do have a guilty pleasure show (have watched since I was 9 or 10, and I'm nearly 29 now) - All My Children - well, over the years, it has tried my patience with its wacky storylines, but the show has always had a handful of good actors and good storylines to keep me coming back for more. Recently, they recast Greenlee, who is now out for revenge because her chance at happiness with Ryan, as well as her chance to have someone bear their natural child (her eggs, his sperm - she can't carry a baby to term) was taken from her. I can understand that she's angry, but there are numerous other baby/pregnancy storylines right now - it seems like they are all happening at the same time, after a long period where the storylines didn't have to revolve around children, getting pregnant, etc., and it's starting to get very boring for me.

Just an observation....wondered if any of the rest of you guys notice such things.

I used to watch AMC, too! I just can't get into it anymore ...

I would love to see female characters on TV being 1) CF and 2) not running after a husband all the time! I would love to see more independent women who puts her career before marriage. I love my husband very much, but I wish we hadn't hooked up until I was about 30 so could go off and do the career things I really wanted to do. Damn him for making me love him so much I can't stand to be apart from him!

I never got into Sex and the City, but it seems like maybe I'd enjoy Kim Cattrall's character.

I liked X-Files until Scully had her baby. I kind of liked that she couldn't get pregnant, until she obsessed over it and then had her miracle baby.

I don't watch alot of TV, but in terms of books Anne MacCaffery has some terrific CF characters. (bear in mind this is science fiction/fantasy so won't appeal to all). I really liked Crystal Singer and Killashandra - it's about a smart, ambitious main character who chooses a career that excludes the possibility of having a child. (there are some good, sexy scenes in these books too!) She's not always a sympathetic main character but I like her anyway. The Dragonrider series does have people having kids but they are more incidental to the story line, I'd say. And the "Ship who sang" (when children were born with problems that wouldn't let their bodies survive, but their brains were fine, the brains get hooked up to control a spaceship ... so they are part-ship part-human - obviously not going to have kids and in a demanding, challenging, rewarding career) - another favourite. Or "to ride pegasus" - another one where the stories and ideas are gripping and the children thing not a part of the main characters' lives, or incidental.

Yes, I know this isn't high literature or improving my mind, but I do love the escape of a book that absorbs me

For TV, I just realized that the Star Trek series - or at least the ones I'm familiar with, like the Next Generation - also have more child-free role models. Hmmm.

Andie

Ps. Have I revealed myself to be a nerd?

General Hospital had a character today that declared her childfree status. The woman is a nurse on the show who works in OB/GYN and said she spends all day helping deliver babies and loves what she does but has no interest in raising her own. She said she'd never wanted children and could never picture children in her future. She also said she didn't date men with kids - that when she saw men with kids, she thought they were already married or paying a lot of money in child support and that she wasn't interested in that. It was refreshing to see a character say all of this.

I love the Dragonrider series. And you're right, the kids in those books are not what the storyline revolves around...the adults and young adults are the main characters, as well as the dragons. Great books!

I just realized...the Harry Potter books, which I'm a big fan of, though the main characters are children, have no babies or anyone having babies in the books. Also, the child characters are given adult-type responsibilities, so they do appeal to adults as well as children. These books can truly be enjoyed on several levels.

Cindy

LOL Andie, if so, no more than I am. I love Anne McCaffrey! Killashandra rocks.

Andie: I absolutely ADORE Killashandra. I try to re-read those books at least once a year. (In the winter a good dose of Killa & Lars in the islands is always awesome). It's interesting that when you become a Crystal Singer you become sterile, but no one backs out... So everyone on Ballybran is CF.
I've tried to think of other CF fictional characters in TV & the movies, but am having a hard time coming up with any.

p.s. I adore Star Trek also... especially Star Trek TNG (I have the entire series on DVD!).

What really annoys me is how TV series that have CF characters, inevitably conclude with those characters having babies - i.e. shows like Frasier, Friends and Will & Grace. Or, remember that show from the '90s, "Mad About You"? Here was a comedy about couple in their 30s without children, with interesting careers, friends, a dog and a cool apartment. How did that series conclude? With a baby, of course. It's as if the writers ran out of ideas and needed an easy way to wrap up the series.

On a related note, last year when Katie Couric left the Today Show, I read a disturbing article about how NBC rejected Campbell Brown as her replacement in favor of Meredith Viera. The reason? Brown was an attractive CF woman, whereas Viera had kids. I guess they felt their audience would relate better to a mom. What really upset me though was that being "attractive and CF" was a problem. For some reason, being an attractive "normal" woman means that you must have kids - and if you are unattractive, well apparently no one minds that you're not reproducing. Interestingly, Diane Sawyer, who hosts the ABC morning show, is CF and attractive. However, she's beyond childbearing years, so perhaps this lets her off the hook.

GB,

Your anchor coments are beyond disturbing. I haven't watched TV news in years, as I feel it's just about entirely descended into "infotainment", but sheesh...

In terms of the other TV you mention...the "character has a baby" thing is such a predictable death knell for shows that the website "Jump the Shark" (dedicated to talking about why/when/how formerly good TV shows tank!) has a big section on it. It's as if the writers, running out of gas, say "Hey, we'll get a temporary ratings bump if we do the kid thing". Then things go downhill from there.

Hey --- it's art imitating life! Women who decide to have babies get temporary ratings bumps too! If it's what they really want, then parenthood is its own reward. But woe betide the people for whom the baby shower is the high point...

Elise, I'd never heard the term "Jump the Shark" before. Too funny!

You're right, jumping the shark happens in real life too. One could refer to women who get pregnant for the purpose of a temporary ratings boost as having jumped the shark - i.e. getting pregnant for superficial reasons (attention, gifts, status, approval), as opposed to actually wanting to experience parenthood.

BTW, for anyone who is interested, here is the link to the article about Campbell Brown being too attractive & CF to host the Today show from salon.com