Opinion8ed

So, this morning I was at the gym (seriously!) and I watched an episode of W.est W.ing on T.L.C. while I was on the treadmill. It had been years since I'd seen my friends at the Wing. That was very fun. But that is not my point. That network, which I usually avoid like the plague because of the torture and pain that is A Ba.by St.ory, was running a commercial for a new show. A new show about a family with two sets of twins and a set of sextuplets.  Add that to Jon and Kate (which I've only seen once but thought was pretty hideous), and that crazy family from Texas or somewhere with 18 kids that came one at a time. That is some serious fetish-izing of large families, families with multiples. These people get free cars, new homes, advertising dollars, etc. It got me to thinking about the way the octo-mom was widely reviled .... Now, I personally think that octo-mom must be crazy. From the (admittedly very little) that I read about her, it does sound like she has some issues, probably economic and perhaps psychological as well. And her doctor has questionable (at best) ethics. And I'm not a fan of her decision to have eight when she already had so many at home. And I'm definitely not a fan of the anti-fertility treatment backlash that she sparked. However, I don't have a clue about her fitness as a parent, any more than I do about Jon and Kate, or the D.uggars. But I can see that there is public revulsion at the single mom with limited means, while huge TV deals are being thrown at straight couples who have made similarly wacky decisions. All these mega-families with multiples rely on family, friends, church, whatever to help them, none of them could do it alone, and then they get their entire parenthood financially sponsored by a TV network. And yet octo-mom is the object of scorn. I'm just saying, despite her faults, which are probably many, I'm thinking a portion of people's disgust with her has to do with the fact that she isn't partnered with a man. And that pisses me off. We can make you a commodity and sell you to audiences everywhere if you are a straight couple, but a single woman gets raked over the coals. It's just so clear that the horror of octo-mom wasn't about having 8 kids. If she'd been married, they just would have given her a TV show. It was really about her much larger sin, that of not coupling in the socially acceptable way. Argh! (Sorry if this debate has already been covered ad nauseam elsewhere. I'm just a wee bit behind the curve when it comes to pop culture. Anyway. You can return now to your regular programming.)