Octomom

I'm on the same page as Liss that Nadya Suleman and her reproductive choices are none of my business, but I seem to be in the minority.

Everyone who has tried to engage my reluctant attention about Suleman has opened the conversation by mocking or judging her. Many people have jumped on the bandwagon with great abandon, even people who are supposedly progressive. They can't wait to stick the knife in, to talk about what a "freak" this woman is.

I wondered why this story was eliciting so many pronouncements from atop unfamiliar moral high horses, and then I saw the media coverage, which has portrayed her as a monster, showing photographs of her distended belly under headlines like "Pics of Octomommy!" or "Octomom Photographed!" It's a headline that wouldn't look out of place on the front page of The Daily Bugle.

Octomom doesn't sound like a mother of octuplets; it sounds like a Marvel supervillain, or a monster. It's not a neutral descriptor, and it's not cute. It's disparaging. It's dehumanizing.

The media's portrayal of her is disgusting. It's just such a cheap shot. Let's demonize a woman for her reproductive choice that's somewhat out of the ordinary in order to sell detergent.

Many people who are usually more cynical about the media are jumping right on board. In addition to the usual misogyny that's always operative, I suspect there's a lot of projection going on. People who are in financial trouble with a lot of credit card debt, which may or may not be their fault because of the economy but they're told either way it's because they're irresponsible, have seized on a woman who's "more irresponsible" than they are, and they just can't get enough of shaming her.