The mainstream media is a scary place, and I can’t find fault with Catholics who ignore it as much as possible, preferring to stick with Catholic blogs, TV networks, publications, etc.
But as a revert, and an entertainment journalist, I’ve spent the bulk of my adult life up to my eyebrows in the mainstream media. And every now and then, there is real value in peeking over the fence and seeing what, and how, the secular world thinks about things.
Sometimes it’s surprising, other times depressing, and occasionally very silly.
Here’s a sampling:
From KevinMD.com, a blog for doctors, in which a hospitalist (a doctor who works on staff at hospitals) recalls the devastation of her miscarriage. It’s called “You Will Always Be Our Second Child” …
As a hospitalist physician, I’ve encountered death, grief and helplessness almost daily. I’ve run codes on patients with family members weeping in the room. I’ve delivered bad news. I’ve seen bad outcomes. Nothing prepared me for this day.
I write this piece in memoriam for our second son or daughter. Though he or she is gone, I feel peace and hope and trust in God always. To all the ladies that have suffered a miscarriage or are battling with infertility — whether you are a fellow doctor, teacher, nurse or businesswoman — you are not alone.
John Piper so eloquently wrote, “Occasionally, weep deeply over the life you hoped would be. Grieve the losses. Then, wash your face. Trust God. And embrace the life you have.”
At the other end of the spectrum, also from KevinMD.com, an adamantly pro-abortion Canadian OB/GYN talks about why she supports abortion (at the same time refuting many claims of pro-life advocates), while also offering a look at the harsh cultural realities behind sex-selective abortion among immigrant families:
While I worry that a women denied a sex-selective abortion might seek un[der]ground care, I also worry if she doesn’t get the abortion she feels she needs she will be punished for having a girl. For the next 18 years. Or longer. Or that she faces a life of servitude to her uterus in search of a boy, a goal that ironically she can’t even control. I also worry that if she feels Western society is judging her that she will be less likely to seek care of any kind or confide in her providers.
Sex-selective abortion and multiple pregnancies in search of a male heir are symptoms of misogyny and are proof that women’s lives are undervalued almost everywhere, even Canada. To ignore the women who deliver their eighth girl and will be back for number nine is proof that sex-selective abortion has been twisted to be about abortion and not about sex selection.
From New York magazine, in which a mother fires back at a column advocating “meternity” leave for childless women:
I do sympathize with Foye: Being a parent is one of those things that is completely uninteresting until you become one. I, too, lingered under the supposition that I could blog from home sans child care with a newborn; that I’d get back into the gym six weeks postpartum; that I’d still go to the dentist regularly.
But two and a half years into my journey as a mother, the reality couldn’t be more different. The truth is that there is nothing in this world less flexible than an infant (besides a toddler), and being a parent means never doing anything spur of the moment again. It means relentlessly planning backups for backups and often, it means constant anxiety about work: Will you get fired if you’re late once more because the kid threw up all over you? Will you be passed over for promotion in favor of a woman without children, or literally any man? Probably!
Foye may have hit upon a cute premise for a novel, but she’s ignoring the fact that, after maternity leave, most women’s careers will absolutely suffer. And it is much worse for working-class parents than for the ones she worked alongside as an editor at a magazine. Remember: 69.9 percent of U.S. mothers work, yet we have no parental-leave policy in the U.S., nor do we have adequate or affordable child-care options.
And lastly, from the fashion blog The Cut, a delightful take on the phenomenon of “fashion ladies” who seem to have something against coat sleeves:
I’m sure you could tell by the way I am wearing my coat as if it were a cape, but I am an important fashion lady. I must ask that you respect me. I refuse to put my arms through the sleeves of this coat I am wearing because, as you must understand by now, important fashion ladies are above this pedestrian task. Please, keep a distance. I have important fashion events to attend!
Perhaps it will surprise you to learn that people often stop me on the street to photograph me. Do you know who these people are? They are called street-style photographers. Who photographs you when you are walking down the street? Your mom? Ha! I bet. Where are your jeans from? You don’t even know? Please, out of my face before I have to gesture politely and very carefully from beneath the confines of my coat. Wearing my coat like this does not give me a wide range of motion, it’s true; but that won’t stop me from flapping my arms forward like a dog paddling out of water. I might even set aside my enormous fashion clutch (bright-orange leather) to do so. No more of this chatter! Shoo, plebe!
And as a bonus, a bit of beauty and truth from an unexpected source:
https://youtu.be/HxEoj_k97HI
Image: YouTube screenshot
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