[Fwd: Re: [Fwd: Re: ignore this, it's about women and sexism ...]]

[Katha Pollitt]

Sorry if I misunderstood yr post about second child,Kelley.  I hope you
understand that nothing I say means I disagree that femininity and
masculinity is socially constructed. For instance, that so-called 
autonomous choice to go into a helping profession and the other things
you mention, like intensity of desire to have a child. I'm glad you're
not worried about your biological clock -- but you do seem to have a
rather elastic sense of biological possibility. For women, you extend it
to 55, when having a baby at 55 would put you on the front page of the
Times, especially if you did it without hugely expensive fertility
interventions. (and this is leaving out whether you would want to be the
mother of a fifteen year old when you were 70!). For men, you decrease
the age of possible paternity by talking about LOWERED sperm production,
but it only takes one, and there's med science to help, also. We all
know "start over dads" who father second sets of kids in their fifties.

  Sure there are going to be exceptions, but IN GENERAL the chances of a
55 yr old man being fertile are about a thousand times greater than for
a female (not a scientific estimate). And that does structure how each
sex feels about the timing of reproduction.  It's just like death: you
might live to be  110, but you can't count on it. 

  Katha