HW 35 - Other Peoples' Perspectives 1

For this assignment, I interviewed my friends Sophia, Braxton, Hayley and Praxitelies (Prax). With each conversation I started with the question, "Do you ever want to have children of your own?"

Sophia, 16, said that depending on her financial/work situation, she would probably have children in the future. Her biggest fear though was of the responsibility that comes with being a parent. We talked a bit about her personal life; when she was younger (and still now) she used to worry about her younger brother. She felt as though it was her responsibility to keep him safe from getting hurt etc.

Braxton, 16, began with an absolute yes. He even went on to say that he knew that he wanted two boys so that they "can play with each other and I can teach them the ways of the world". I asked him if there were any other reasons as to why he wanted boys, "I'm a guy... and I know teenage girls go through some insane stuff. Also, what if my daughter turned out to be a ho!?!?! nope. not dealing with it". He also said that were he to have children, he would undoubtedly want to be married to the female giving birth to his children. So I asked him what he would do should a female become impregnated by him and they weren't married. He simply said that it wouldn't happen, and that he would prevent pregnancy by using condoms. I asked him what other types of birth control were options, and he said, "lots of other types of condoms". However he is very aware that there are other types of birth control, because I asked him if it was wrong for women to use birth control drugs and he said "not at all".

The longest conversation I had was with my friend Prax, ~18. Similarly to Sophia, he said that he would probably want children in the future but that any final decision would depend on his career path. He also said that he would want to be married to a woman who was having his children. So I asked him, "If you were to impregnate a girl without being married, how do you think you would realistically handle the situation?". He replied, "Realistically i would discuss the possibility of abortion though ultimately the choice would be the woman's, and if she truly felt that she wanted to keep the child I would be obligated to provide". He went on to say that he is vehemently pro-choice but if presented with the option for another family to adopt, he would be fine with it. My final question to him was who/what he thought influenced his ideas/values around birth the most. He said, "my family".

My Conversation with Hayley, 16, helped me notice a pattern. Hayley said that she would most likely want one or two children in the future and that she thought that giving birth is painful. I asked her how she would know and she said that just the thought of a baby coming out of her own body sounds scary. Hayley's mom has told her on numerous occasions that the pain of pregnancy is worth the "joy of motherhood". During our conversation, Hayley referred to giving birth as "popping them out". I asked her why she said that. This is her reply, "Sometimes i feel that women, for whatever reason, want to have a ton of kids. It's certainly their choice, I just feel that women have been submissive to men for so long that it shouldn't ALL be about having kids and being a Mom anymore. Women should pursue whatever they want to pursue, and not have to feel tied down because of family. if they want to pursue family, so be it. but I think women should have a choice. And the popping them out part is I guess a biproduct of my resentment, or at least inability to relate to women who choose to build a family over pursuing a career." I really wanted to keep talking to her but our conversation got cut short. 

The pattern that Hayley helped me to see is that the females seemed to take this assignment more seriously than the males. There are certain things that Prax and Braxton said that showed that they weren't taking my questions seriously. Braxton had some jokey responses to some of my questions like "What kind of birth control would you use?" "glow in the dark condoms!!". Prax, would incorporate birth to becoming a world dictator, "were i to become a word dictator i would sire a small dynasty", "My other children have been strategically planted on all continents including Antarctica", "[Adoption] fits nicely into my whole continent theory
of world domination via pregnancy", "[Someone who influenced my ideals would be] Ghengis khan...he did so much raping and pillaging that something like 20% of asia can trace the population back to him". Overall I think that the answers weren't very deep thought-wise, but that it was more my fault as the interviewer for not asking more thought provoking questions.