WE ARE CHILDFREE

We’re still in shock. But maybe we shouldn’t be.

To us Brits, the 2024 US election results are reminiscent of Brexit. In the cursed year of 2016, I woke up on a trip back “home” to find out the people around me had voted to leave Europe, and I remember looking around at them thinking, “Was it you? Is THIS what you wanted?”

And to our siblings in the States, this must feel sickeningly familiar. Like the last time this happened…

I’ll leave it to greater political minds to sift through the results and work out what happened. Already a lot of attention is being paid to exit polls which indicate that more than two-thirds of white women voted Republican. It’s astonishing that they would vote against their reproductive rights, if not their self-interests in general, but also not new news.

Instead, I’m asking myself, where are the men in all this? How has it become expected that white men would overwhelmingly vote for the marginalisation and subjugation of everyone who doesn’t enjoy the privilege of looking like us? Is life really a zero-sum game, where if everyone else loses, we win?

We need to stop looking at this as a women’s issue. Because men – especially the men who are about to take office – don’t listen to women.

Hell, the women who may have decided this election don’t even consider this a white women’s issue. The wealthy among them will still be able to get the abortions they need, even while backing its restriction and removal for poor women, women of colour and other marginalised groups. The women closest to the men who are doing the most damage, the ones who have these men’s ears, have decided that they either can’t, won’t or shouldn’t speak up.

So with World Vasectomy Day coming up, I’m looking to men to take on their fair share of reproductive responsibilities, and to be outspoken about that decision. Men like my brother-in-law, who recently decided a blended family with 4 kids is quite enough, got the snip and posted about it on Instagram (I’m so proud!). Men like Mindi, who had his own “selfish” reasons for seeking permanent birth control, but also felt it was his feminist duty.

You can read the stories of childfree men here, and find their vasectomy experiences here.

If you have a childfree man in your life, encourage him to share his story with us, consider a vasectomy, and if he won’t listen to you – send him my way! HE can really have an impact in how the world sees and treats people of marginalised genders. Don’t let him forget that.

We’re sending our love and strength to you at this tough time – to everyone everywhere whose nations are turning towards right-wing extremism. We’ve been there, we see you and we’re here for you 💝