Give Us Your First Born

CNN reported this morning that signatures are being sought for a Washington State defense of marriage initiative that would force couples who want to marry to prove that they are able to have kids together before they can get a marriage certificate. If you marry and you don’t have a child within three years, your marriage would be annulled.

At first listen it sounds like something social conservatives have dreamed up to thwart same sex marriages. WRONG.

Initiative 957 was concieved by a group calling themselves the Washington Defense of Marriage Alliance which...

..."seeks to defend equal marriage in this state by challenging the Washington Supreme Court’s ruling on Andersen v. King County. This decision, given in July 2006, declared that a 'legitimate state interest' allows the Legislature to limit marriage to those couples able to have and raise children together. Because of this 'legitimate state interest,' it is permissible to bar same-sex couples from legal marriage."

And the childfree, too.

The Washington Defense of Marriage Alliance is a group of concerned citizens that became alarmed when the Supreme Court ruled that the state had a "legitimate" interest in establishing that the purpose of marriage is for procreation and child-rearing.

The Alliance spokesperson and the initiative sponsor, Gregory Gadow is hoping that the initiative will pass and the Supreme Court is forced to rule that the assumption that procreation is a required element for legal marriage is unconstitutional.

They need 224,880 signatures by July 5 to get Initiave 957 on the ballot in November. As of this morning, they had 200. I envision the petition sheet.

Where else will you see social conservatives, same-sex marriage advocates and the childfree signing in support the same initiative?

Technorati Tag: Childfree

McPurple

Found this post by my friend Nicole Weston, who happens to be a Purple Woman, over at one of my favorite food blogs: Slashfood.com. She writes about food oddities.

Disclaimer: I am not recommending this diet. I just thought it was hillarious and wanted to share a laugh with other Purple Women^TM!

[Photo: Originally uploaded to Flickr on February 10, 2007 by the Comic Shop]

Technorati Tag: Childfree

Proud to be Purple Day & Photo Contest

When I saw "the artist formerly known as Prince" doing his shtick during the Super Bowl at half time, I thought if Prince can do Purple Rain, we can have our own holiday! Mark your calendar for *March 4.

Calling all Purple Women^TM and their friends to celebrate the first annual mock holiday for people of a purple persuasion, that's us, we're childfree. To celebrate, we are hosting a purple photo contest and the winners and winning images will be announced on our holiday.

We have teamed up with Grandma Purple's online store to offer some nice prizes. Cyd, (alias: Grandma Purple), is not childfree herself, but she is really supportive of our choice and lifestyle. She offers any reader of this blog a 10% discount. Heck, if you don't like purple there is a lovely shoe-shaped pie server in a smart stainless steel.

To counter the notion that we "only think about ourselves" (have you ever been called selfish?), your entry fee is a donation to your favorite women's charity, perhaps a shelter for abused women and children (think: purple ribbon campaign), in the amount of $10.00 or more. For more ideas, and a view of the pool of photo entries, check out the sister site that has been created to support this contest: Purple Women Give Back.

The Contest: Submit your best purple photo and make a donation to a women's charity.

Contest Rules

Photo Categories
Best Overall (Grand Prize Winner), People, Places, Pets and Things, plus three Special Mentions. Your image must be digital and it must contain purple, or have a purple theme.

Judges
Purple Women & Friends Regular Contributors

**Permissions
By entering this contest you are giving Purple Women & Friends permission use your image, specifically it will be published on this blog and perhaps used to illustrate a post at a later date.

How
Send a link to your contest entry image stored on your Flickr account or attached a TIFF or JPEG file of your image for the entry and email it to Teri directly. Your photo entry must be digital.

Your entry must include in the email somewhere, the name of the charity you made a donation to.

Limit one photo per person.

Deadline for submission: February 25, 2007

Winners announced: March 4, 2007

Prizes
Grand Prize - $50 cash, plus a $10 gift Grandma Purple gift certificate and year’s supply of purple duct tape. (One will be awarded.)

Category Prizes - $10.00 Grandma Purple gift certificate and a year's supply of purple duct tape. (Four will be awarded, one in each category.)

Special Mentions - a year's supply of, you guessed it, purple duct tape (ahem, that's one roll!) (Three will be awarded.)

Any questions? Email Teri.

(*Blog administrator's note: March 4th also happens to be the Jewish holiday Purim and my mother's birthday, this is just coincidence, no disrespect is intended.)

(**You may designate how you would like your image to be attributed.)


[Photo: Originally uploaded to Flickr on February 3, 2007 by Pilou@ttitude.]

Technorati Tag: Childfree

Quotable

“My mother knew something was ‘wrong’ with me when I played Barbies with my friend, and her Barbie married Ken and they had five kids,” Evans-Gleneski says.

“My Barbie was president of an oil company, drove a Corvette and lived by herself in a townhouse.”

Taken from an article that ran in the Metro Times Detroit, an alternative free weekly publication - more than a year old, but still inspiring.

Thanks to Chris, The Fixed Kitty podcaster (The Adult Space Child Free Podcast) for pointing out its longevity!


Technorati Tag: Childfree

Bloggers Are Women

Of course we all know that's not true. The majority of bloggers are women, some of them Purple Women^TM.

Technorati Tag: Childfree

Project Update: The Book

One cross-border, cross-country move and a funeral later, and my transcription machine, complete with foot pedal and headset, is back on my writing desk. I have set myself up facing the large picture window of our living room. A place of quiet and solitude. The dictionary, style guide and thesaurus are all within arm's reach and it's time to get busy with...

...the Purple Women^TM book project!

The book will feature a section called Portraits of Purple Women^TM. These women have been hand-selected by me because as childfree women they stand out for me, for one reason or another, and their stories will help me paint the picture of what it is to be childfree today. Perhaps I can answer the question of whether or not we are part of a real movement definitively, reveal what our place is in the "village of life", look ahead to where we are going in old age, and reflect on what we can do to make things better for the next generation of childfree adults.

A total of 15 interviews are slated. This is something I truly enjoy, as I learn something from every childfree woman I meet. Two interviews have been completed thus far and two more are scheduled.

The survey was completed last summer, and I need to revisit that data to keep my thinking and creative process moving forward. More than 200 childfree women in Canada and the U.S. participated. Initial results on the multiple-choice section were debuted in a series of posts:

Survey Results #1 (Pre-qualifying questions)
Survey Results #2 (respondent demographics)
Survey Results #3 (best childfree perk)
Survey Results #4 (satisfaction scale, stereotypes)

My last project update was in August 2006. The goals I set are still valid.


Technorati Tag: Childfree

Hate or Humor?

"There are so many kids to hate, and so little time."

This from the introduction of Adrienne Frost’s book I Hate Other People’s Kids. Simon Spotlight Entertainment published this book back in 2006. And, yes, it clearly falls into the category of entertainment. Frost is a comedian, and in this case her acerbic humor is directed at kids…other people’s kids. Since she’s childfree, I guess that means all kids.

Much of the book is a laundry list of the ways kids spoil perfect adult fun and suggestions on how you might deal with the little devils and their "Babyoid" parents.

The humor is of the stand-up variety, crude and over-the-top, but occassionally Frost hits the target with observations rooted in truths. "Have you met my vagina?" is the heading of a paragraph on being subjected to birthing videos. Frost suggests ways in which you can "exact your revenge" on parents who attempt to draw you into their gruesome placenta world by suggesting you "laminate your pap smear and put it on the fridge. Pop in the video of you passing that stubborn kidney stone."

Her stated goal is to liberate us all, non-parents and parents alike, from the secret guilt of hating other people’s kids, but like other recent books of this ilk, the gleefully mean-spirited approach gives credence to the assumption that the childfree are so because we hate kids. That would be okay it if were true but my research shows that dislike of kids is nowhere near the most compelling motive to remain childfree.

Sure, kids are sometimes annoying, messy, and loud, which is why I try to avoid being seated near small children in my favorite restaurants. On the rare date night, many parents do the same.

Which is why my favorite line in Frost’s book is:

"And they say Jesus loved the little children, all the children of the world, but he never had to dine with one. He chose the lepers."

Technorati Tag: Childfree

No Kidding! Update

Purple Women^TM, you too can start a No Kidding! chapter. Now there's even an instruction handbook wiki on how to do it. This is a sure recipe for getting your childfree social life on track, whether single or married. Pay a minimal start-up cost, agree to the ground rules, add a generous helping of your time to recruit volunteers, members and plan events, and you can use the official name. This organization is heavily, and well-promoted.

The annual convention of this international social club for childfree adults is just around the corner - Las Vegas or bust!. The planners from Chapter One have just added a wiki page to help folks connect to share hotel rooms, rides, etc. Their efforts are truly appreciated.

It just keeps getting better.


Technorati Tag: Childfree