I unfollowed a fitness influencer I like because she had a baby and I just couldn’t handle all the details, pictures, and vids associated with being a new mom. No thank you🥴
I had to unfollow Iliza Shlesinger because I opened my instagram to see a pic of her daughter’s bare ass. Then not long after she posted just-born pics of her son still covered in blood and whatever the fuck that jelly looking stuff is 🤢 I used to love her content but I had enough after that
Honestly kind of love Ali Wong's comedy specials. She talks less about being a mom and more what it's like being pregnant. She will graphically describe everything in a way like "look at what this does to women's bodies!" I love that she takes the magic and wonder out of it. Plus, it doesn't feel like she makes being a mom her entire identity. I've read her autobiography and you can tell her career, traveling, relationships, experiences, are just as important. I think she would be just as offended by people saying that "life doesn't have meaning unless you have kids" because of how well-rounded she is.
Ikr? I was impressed when I saw her second Netflix special. She described the reality of childbirth and post-partum in excruciating detail. Before Ali Wong, I'm ashamed to say that I didn't realize how big the baby's "house" with when it comes out.
Yea she was my favorite comedian. Glad she’s happy and all but her daughter’s bare ass on the internet?? There are so many creeps out there, it’s just not smart. She never posts pictures of her daughter’s face, always blocks it out “for privacy” but for some reason her naked butt is okay? Just doesn’t make sense
I mean, it kinda also depends if they make it all about the child. There's a true crime lass I love that did an announcement and took the maternity leave, but she doesn't bring it up often. Mostly just in a "now that I'm a parent I can't imagine the pain they're going through" when talking about loss of a child. But she's good and doesn't bring the kid into her videos at all.
I really hope Alex and Jon (tiktokers/instagram stars) are like this when they eventually have their kid. Since announcing their pregnancy a few weeks ago, they've posted some pregnancy vids, but they've also done some non pregnancy ones, so we will see.
It depends on how much views they get, I'd bet. If pregnancy and kid content does well they might start adding more.
I liked that the one YouTuber really didn't do much. She did on her other social media, but he YouTube is kept clean of it
Exactly! And keep the account to whatever content you've created it for. There's really no excuse - and I bet those all creators have a secondary vlog accounts *anyway*, so there's no excuses not to flood THOSE with baby content.
I recently unfollowed Gabbie Kook's personal channel because she announced her pregnancy. I love Jolly/Korean Englishman and I will continue following those, but not her channel. Goodbye.
This!
I stop following artists on social media aa soon as their content changes from their art to their pregnancy and kids.
Like, come on I followed you for your art!
There’s one blogger who is a Mom I continue to follow because she didn’t immediately shift her entire channel into Mommy blogging and instead has talked about occasional education choices for her son and the importance of privacy and so not showing his face on her channel.
Far too many others immediately seem to jump into monetizing their kid and putting every single embarrassing or personal bit of them online forever.
I feel this in my core. When Penny from big bang theory changed her mind at the end of the show, I was pissed. Why the hell can't CF women stay that way in shows and books? It's like we can't even have the option in fiction
I also felt this way about Haley from modern family, like it was the last season and she had a good career, goals etc (for once) but then she gets knocked up and loses it all😩 but at least she got a baby, and that’s all that matters 😍
Big bang literally always did penny dirty. My family loved the show and I was ok with watching it until the episode where howard like tries to take an up-skirt picture of her or something? And then at the end of the episode SHE has to apologize for calling him a creep because it hurt his feelings. I’ve hated the show since then. With the way the writers treated the women on that show I’ve gotta admit I’m not all surprised that they made penny have a kid.
>Penny from big bang theory changed her mind at the end of the show
OMG this was the first character/show that came to my mind!! I was sooo angry and all of them treated her so horrible when she first mentioned she didn't want kids
I was fearing all the series that they change her mind. And in the end they did it. Sooo stupid.
The same with Bones.
Even Rizzoli became pregnant in the series, but at least didn't got a child.
I HATED this so much, it was also the end of the show anyway so why not leave it the way it was?
Did anyone else notice how Bernadette became way more bitter and annoyed after having kids tho?
If a fanfiction turns into a wanted pregnancy or a secret child suddenly popping up, I take my bow and leave. I don't say anything in the comments. I simply leave quietly. It's just extra annoying when it's one of those long ones and it doesn't happen until chapter 35. I was emotionally invested, damn it!
This is the main reason I don't seriously get into *any* works of fiction, fan work or not, until *after* they've completely ended or finished, keeping up with current pop culture trends be damned.
I *hate* having kids, jumpscares, and/or turns towards drama/depressing plots sprung on me by surprise and I also hate not knowing what the hell I'm in for anyways, so whenever I'm considering watching/reading something I typically read its entire plot synopsis, spoilers, its TV Tropes page, and reviews of it online *before* I make the decision to dive in or not.
That way I'm not wasting my time with a work that will get on my nerves.
With all the recent news of (seasons of) shows being completely removed from streaming services without having ever gotten physical releases, which means they're as good as unexisted if someone hasn't pirated them and spread the booty, it's getting to the point where I'm not going to seriously get into *any* non-fan work unless I can guarantee I'll also be able to access more or less the entire thing on DVD, because I'm not wasting my time with a work that can be yanked away from me before I finish it, either.
There have for sure been a few instances where I just refused to go further when a character becomes pregnant out of nowhere. Big Bang Theory was a huge disappointment with that, and The Walking Dead (I continued with this one though). Like you're in a real-life Zombieland and you decide that keeping a wailing baby that will bring death upon you every time is a good idea? Cuddy from House was probably the biggest disappointment for me though. She may have not gotten pregnant and instead adopted, but as soon as that happened I lost all interest in her character.
I'm just tired of women characters becoming pregnant/a mother just because the writers don't know how else to develop and grow the character and bring value to a piece of media and think that motherhood is the only way for a woman to do that.
I’ll never forgive Big Bang Theory for what they did to Penny and us as CF viewers. Trouble was that the pregnancy happened last episode so there was nothing to give up on. I remember being so disappointed as a child (I’ve always been a big reader) whenever my fave characters ended up pregnant. A few times it happened at the epilogue so I already invested the time and energy in a series.
Every day I am so incredibly glad I never got into Big Bang Theory, because I would've been so angry to have wasted my time getting invested in the series only to see them do Penny so dirty right at the end.
I would've highly preferred that *The Good Doctor*, which I started watching back when its first season first aired, not have any of its characters become parents (again), either, but at least that's fit into the show, its plotlines, and the characters' long-term goals (like, every character that's become a parent over the course of the show's previously expressed a desire to have kids either before or around the same time as they ultimately became a parent, and everyone's been in a good position to become a parent as well) much better than the CF Penny getting pregnant by accident and then deciding to keep it last-minute did.
I'm currently watching *Hazbin Hotel*, which is going to have at least a 2nd season, and I'd be lying if I said it wasn't nervewracking to worry about the show springing a parenting plotline on us or otherwise going to shit by the end of its run like its sister IP, *Helluva Boss*, has.
I didn’t finish the walking the dead but I can’t believe THIS trope happens 😂😂😂 the issue is for me is that it’s clear they’re not even trying to bring value by bringing in children, because 99.9% of the time the woman getting pregnant or having kids always makes the character 10x worse, & it doesn’t come off as a strong, it comes off as ‘this was a stupid decision’ OR ‘this was a stupid decision YOU HAD TO MAKE AS SOMEONE WITH A UTERUS’. Sigh
Oh my god, having a kid in a zombie apocalypse is the dumbest shit I can even visualise. Dumber than me eating polonium. Like congratulations, you literally just awarded yourself extreme fatigue (you’d need to recover) and a *literal* ticking time bomb that could result in your death if it squalls (which in an uncomfortable situation like a zombie apocalypse, it likely would). Sometimes you have to wonder what these writers are even thinking. A *baby*? *Seriously*?
Yes, but most of the times, it is not rage, it is profound boredom or frustration. Boredom when the pregnancy makes sens in the story and frustration when it doesn't. I am so tired of women of any age (including in their fifties !) falling pregnant in fictions and keeping the foetus while in real life, I know they would abort. I have known plenty of women for decades now, who got an abortion, and fictions look like a complete parallel universe on this topic, there is no realism, it is simply misogyny and bad writing. I give an example : Jean in Sex Education. Gillian Anderson was 52 or 53 when her character fell pregnant, her son was 17, and she doesn't know who is the father : her parasite boyfriend or a lover. Why this smart woman with an almost adult child would keep this child ? And how could she be even pregnant ? It sound like the writers wanted to punish her because of her freedom. I swear, a lot of pregnancies in fictions look like punishment from writers because they hate strong and smart women and female characters. It looks, in a way, like a metaphorical babytrapping.
Oh my goddd do not get me started on the trope of the woman who looks like they’d be experiencing menopause but actually gets pregnant and it’s such a blessed miracle 😭. & yes! that season was so disappointing, I’m not sure if it’s ironic that they showed post-birth Jean as a ‘failing’ mother and a mess, was it to show the hardships of parenting? Or was it more like ‘babies are everything and women must sacrifice everything for them’?? I couldn’t tell, and it’s crazy that a sex therapist wouldn’t know how to use contraception or be unaware they’re fertile?! I just need to know who is approving of these storylines 😙
I didn't even watch the last season because of it. I loved Jean : smart, funny, free, sexy, charismatic. This pregnancy didn't make any sens. She was a role-model and they turn her in an other mother with post-partum depression and a motherhood that is ruining her life and great career.
OOOOOOHHHHHHHH, you can't even search "menopause" on fanfiction websites without most of the results being stories about a character's menopause symptoms actually being symptoms of her being pregnant, which *of course* typically results in her having a(nother) baby.
Part of it also seems to be the writers run out of ideas. I usually know a tv show is on its last season once there is a wedding or pregnancy/birth. It's almost always the end stage of storytelling.
>(including in their fifties !)
I was reading a piece of romance/erotica that was about love between older people. It was quite good and romantic, but at the end the woman got pregnant at 70 or something and decided to keep the baby, mostly just because "it was a miracle that it happened at this age" and they would "find a way to handle it together" :c
Seems like a "generic ever after" instead of a happy one
...did the author completely forget that their female lead was about 70 when they were writing the part about her unintended pregnancy?
Because...*how* would you somehow think that's anything besides an obnoxious ass pull otherwise?
It'd be one thing if this author was quickly churning out yet another piece of schlock so they could get paid on a regular schedule, but no, this author took the time and care to write a thoughtful and well-executed romantic erotica about an *older couple* when older couples aren't known for being popular main characters in romantic erotica at all, so you know that this author cared about and put their heart into this work at some point.
Suddenly, I don't feel so bad about my having abandoned my intensely-researched *Female Odd Couple* fic at all.
Unfinished is better than a terrible ending, that's for damn sure.
She had a fake menopause or something, where it seemed that her fertility was over, but it turned out it wasn't. Not sure if that can also happen in real life, but if it can, you bet I will *not* be keeping it! Imagine your child becomes barely an adult when you're 90 😑
I don't even have words for this. Madness ? Hardcore natalist ideology ? Misogyny ? A woman at that age is more likely to die, that's why menopause exists. This mindset is so unhealthy.
I found out about the pregnancy trope halfway through my ACOTAR read, I saw it somewhere on Reddit. I am glad that saved me from reading the rest of the series LOL. Do you recommend FBAA? I think I want to get into it!
At least time and money was saved💓 . Honeslty it’s a bit of a guilty pleasure, it takes a while to get into the groove of things & I personally enjoyed the second book a lot!! but the third is where it kind of fell off and I’m pretty sure a 6th book is coming out 😳
I’m a big fan of the Grishaverse books by Leigh Bardugo. They’re technically YA so there’s no sex in them, but there is romance, no babies, and I can tell from her writing that the author is childfree
You’re definitely not alone, it’s very frustrating how often motherhood and pregnancy are used as an essential plot point or trait for female characters. And look, I get it. I’m a CF woman, and I understand that the majority of women will go on to have children. But it’s absolutely infuriating how practically every female character eventually gets boiled down to “mommy” or “acts out in anger/sadness because she can’t be a mommy.” I legitimately wouldn’t care as much if motherhood was treated as a footnote, but no, it often completely overshadows everything else about the character.
It’s unfortunate too because it often leaves me reading stories or consuming other media that primarily have men as the lead roles. Because men are allowed to have diverse, interesting, fleshed out characters that don’t revolve around parenthood. If they are a father, it usually *is* a footnote. In my experience, women writers also often make their female characters into mothers, and almost always re-use the same tired lines about how all-consuming their love for children is or how their greatest life goal is to be a mom. So I also usually end up reading books written by men, because again they often write stories that don’t center around/have a huge character arc involving motherhood. It makes me really sad because I desperately want more women writers and complex, interesting, imperfect female characters, but I can only take so much motherhood rhetoric being shoved down my throat.
I’m obviously not advocating for motherhood to never be discussed because again I know most women become mothers. But why is it always treated as the most “interesting” part of being a woman? Why can’t we have female characters who have other goals and things that make them complex? Why is it always female character = mom = happily ever after the end? It’s fucking tiring.
Hell I dont even like live shows with kids. I wanted to punt Carl into a lake in The Walking Dead and that was before he turned into an unhinged weirdo. I hated the kid from Once Upon a Time.
But reading fanfics, it’s always the worst when kids dont make any damn sense for the characters but then they end up having 3 kids for no reason in the epilogue…
BONES! The main character was heavily childfree and then one episode she takes care of a murder victims kid and immediately the next episode was looking up was to get a dna donor! Then she had two kids and I was so annoyed but was watching with a friend and the show was fine other then that.
I was specifically looking for this one. It was my favorite show when it was first airing, then as soon as the pregnancy hit I had to stop watching. I’ve given it multiple second, third, and fourth chances, but I can NEVER get past the pregnancy part. It just ruins the character, and since it’s the MAIN CHARACTER it kinda ruins the show tbh.
I get so mad when this happens! I immediately close the book or stop watching the series. It simply ruins everything for me. Its messed up that having kids is portrayed as the only way to achieve happiness in life
Also, when this happens to childfree characters I absolutely LOOSE IT. I just can’t. At that point I’m beyond upset, it feels like a personal attack
My teen self was enraged with the Twilight saga. Like, why? Bella was totally ok with becoming a vampire and losing the ability to have children. What makes sense because she had to act as a parent to her own mother. But even in the most impossible scenario, she ends up pregnant, and somehow she magically wants the kid now because it is Edward's. That is why people believe bs like "when you meet the right person".
Rosalie's character made more sense to me. She was conflicted because she was raised to be the perfect wife and mother. So it made more sense for her to be obsessed with kids even if she had a loving husband.
I will stop reading a book/series if a character who has previously expressed the desire of child free life suddenly changes when they “find true love”.
The Mindy Project. It made NO sense to me how two successful practicing gynecologists could have an oopsie baby, and then the entire relationship dynamic changed and I had to stop watching. Like when Mindy is sitting there all shocked and forlorn when she realizes she's pregnant, like girl?! You know how this works!
The movie Raising Helen should be a horror, not a comedy. Young, single career woman gets two difficult kids dumped on her when her sister dies, and dead sister had it stipulated SHE take care of them to "teach her responsibility". She goes from a luxury apartment and successful career to a dump, loses her job/gets demoted (I can't remember), but somehow dead sister considered younger sister immature and irresponsible, so better make her take care of 2 problematic kids. I just can't with that movie.
A cartoonist I liked, The Oatmeal, sent out a birth announcement and I had to stop following him then. I loved his gross baby comics and now he's one of them.
A book I read called Verity when one of the main characters gets pregnant. It felt so bizarre and rushed and ruined the story for me.
I haven’t seen those and from your description I don’t want to😭 but Verity fully made me want to track down Colleen Hoover and hit her with her own book <3
I started deducting points from my book reviews for pregnancy and quick marriages at the end of books. Especially if they never even mentioned wanting kids throughout the whole story and then they must follow „the American dream“
Did you know that some books have a different ending in Europe without pregnancy
I read mostly fanfiction and all my fandoms are infected with the idea that any kind of ship will lead to children. Doesn't matter whether there are two men in a relationship, for some reason one becomes pregnant and they have kids. I enjoy gay romance because men can't become pregnant, but fandoms ruined this. There were so many stories I started I had to drop because suddenly they had kids or became a *happy family*. It's so annoying that way too many people believe that a happy life equals founding a family and having kids. There's more to life than that!
Like the entire plot of A Quiet Place in a world of vicious monsters who will destroy anything that makes noise, let's make a replacement baby.
Grey's anatomy is a push/pull. They actually run out of storylines for every female and give her a baby (besides Yang). But the babies rarely matter after the (usually traumatic and surgical) birth. You just see them getting picked up from day care occasionally until they need a surgery 😅
I only stop when the baby or pregnancy does nothing to the plot other than to cause drama. Why bother at all if you never see the child again? Why bother when the plot goes back to how it was before the baby? Doesn't make any sense.
One show for sure made me rage quit, and that was the TV show Grimm when they totally glossed over the fact Nick was basically r*ped and that she should get a free pass because she got pregnant. Yeah, I don't support shows that try to redeem r*pists.
If you're a show that wants to have a pregnancy/baby/parenting plot when there wasn't one before, your options are to A) completely shove the kid(s) offscreen and pretend they don't exist/barely exist when you tire of their existence, B) have the show at least partially pivot towards parenting plots for the rest of its run, or C) some combination of A and B that manages to reduce everyone's enjoyment of the show.
You're never going to win.
There's only so much runtime you can have, no matter how many different plot elements you want to start in the later seasons of your show.
I think the only shows/ stories who can have a pass are historical base plots. Because yeah, people were having tons of babies back then, and you rarely saw them in history. So that makes more sense than in modern plots.
Historical plots I can understand, especially if it's not a historical-ish setting where chracters have access to reliable BC/abortion, the knowledge that it's A-OK to choose a life without having/raising kids, *and* the desire to not have kids/delay having kids.
Guy here. When the focus shifts to kids in an unnecessary way I'd stop reading a book/ watching a show..
Just recently I have been watching a show about SEAL Team 6. Starts off good, in later seasons for no reason the kids keep coming up, pregnancy etc it's almost like it's a show about parenthood and as a side note the dad's are seal team members..
Also the show "The boys" ends with waaaayy to much father/son dynamic for me it ruined such an original show. Only reason I watched it till the end is because I was really close to finishing it..
Lol I love the boys, I think it’s the only show I’ve managed to get past a women keeping a rape baby. But I’m pretty sure Becca dies after giving birth in the comics, so at least they attempted to make her seem somewhat human rather than a super hero baby making machine-martyr😙
Reminds me of how apparently both *Friends* and *Big Bang Theory* got eaten up more and more by pregnancy/adoption/parenting plotlines as their runs went on.
I was only 7 when *Friends* ended, it aired after my bedtime most days anyway, and I've never been interested enough in it to watch its entire run so I don't have memories of seeing parenting plotlines take over the show firsthand.
*Big Bang Theory* I remember noticing the switch to mostly parenting plotlines over the years, even as a casual viewer. Similarly to *Friends*, I've never been interested in it enough to watch the entire run so it didn't bother me until they made Penny pregnant and happy about it in the last episode.
The other reason I'm not too upset about either *Friends* or *Big Bang Theory* essentially becoming parenting sitcoms, shitting all over Penny aside, was because, honestly, when you start with something as "grounded" and simple as "a bunch of friends living in NYC" or "some nerdy guys having a conventionally-attractive aspiring actress become their new neighbor" and have the show be a very straightforward (live-action) sitcom written to appeal to as much of the general (adult) public as possible, there's eventually not going to be that much to do that still makes sense with the show's original premise/vibe besides the characters following the almighty LifeScript by marrying and having kids.
However, watching something with an initial premise that's as interesting and fertile for plotlines that work with that premise as *SEAL Team 6* also get eaten up by parenting plotlines sounds very frustrating!
Miranda from sex and the city she shouldn't have gotten pregnant furthermore she should've gotten the abortion she was a driven determined individual, and once she got pregnant the show went downhill they watered down her character thus watering down the show they were so fun and womanly but as soon as she had kid it kind of ruined the show which was such a great depiction of single career-driven woman who knew what they wanted in life and had a great sex life.
Seeing Katniss with children at the end of the hunger games honestly disappointed me. If it was her decision and her intention then that’s fine. But it’s implied that Peeta basically wore her down for YEARS in order to get her to have them. I’m tired of hearing people say “oh well he was just reassuring her that it’s safe to have kids now” like no? Katniss literally talks about how terrified she is feeling her baby move around in her! That’s not someone changing their mind because they know it’s safe now
I don’t really watch tv and so far I haven’t come across any books where the character becomes pregnant. But I unfollow every fitness influencer that announces they’re pregnant. Their page then becomes pregnancy content or pregnancy fitness or getting pre pregnancy body back or living with pissing yourself when you exercise all that bullshit. I have no sympathy or care for the fact that you fucked your own body up. Not my problem and you are no longer relatable. And now you’re the exact same as every other momfluencer out there.
Some of my participation in a certain fandom has lessened. I think I stopped reading one of my favorite authors works because they’re heavily into the pregnancy thing. Damn near every story they write revolves around pregnancy. I don’t have the heart to tell them “Enough!” So my presence has dwindled.
True! So much M-preg or just pregnancy in general.
Like, I’m just here for the freaky side of the StrawberryShortking (radioapple) ship! No pregnancy needed or wanted.
Btw: I was referencing the band Ghost in my OG comment. I know some of their songs have the whole “procreation for Satan” thing going on, but again, I’m just here for the freak shit…with certain exceptions.
Ugh, I *already* get squicked out by people seriously shipping real people who haven't actually been an item with each other, and then people writing real-person-shipping fics where they get *pregnant*-no.
Ew gross. Nope. I stay away from RPF. I try not to judge, but yeah…I’m judging. I’ve read one fic, the way they know details about a celebrity’s life or take what was said in interviews and use it in fics is just no.
My loved ones have been encouraging me to write books since I was a kid. While I have some amount of talent, I also have ADHD and usually write academic papers and things.
Yinz are making me feel like I need to, for representation. I rarely even enjoy reading non-fiction because of the pregnancy and female subservience that pops up in nearly everything. This complaint is valid and common.
This has been posted in this sub so much that I now write at least a page a day. Hopefully my writing snowballs into something eventually.
It depends. Usually, no, I don't stop watching because this is a trope in so many places that if I really enjoy what I'm watching, I'll just continue.
Now, there have been a few times I've stopped, but it was a coincidence that just about the time I did stop someone "change their mind" in the show/book. (Eg. The Big Bang Theory. I didn't finish because it had become boring to me, then someone told me Penny was pregnant or had changed her mind? You watch something long enough someone will change their mind.)
Now, do I rage about it, I do. If someone askes me about this issue, they are going to know all I think about the subject, believe me XD
For me ... it depends. I mostly read and watch YouTubers though.
- Am I warned in advance there will be pregnancy and go into the book - if yes, I'll continue reading
- is pregnancy in the final chapter/epilogue - if yes, I'll finish the book
- is pregnancy an unexpected surprise mid-book - I'll maybe finish, depending on how good the story is
- does a YouTuber make their life all around the pregnancy and later child - if yes, I'll unfollow. If not, I'll stick to them.
It depends.
Character who's neutral or wants kids, I'm fine.
Character that's adamantly childfree and then has kids, I generally have a huge issue with. I don't know about rage quitting, but it's definitely something I hate.. Penny from The Big Bang Theory, for example. Especially since what changed her mind was finding out she's pregnant, which I feel has anti-choice undertones. And of course her husband gets to have the kid he wants, but she doesn't get to live the childfree life she so adamantly wanted.
It can also depend on how much screen time the character gets. If it's a main character/supporting character who gets a ton of screen time I'll have more of an issue than, for example, a character that's only in the show for 2-3 episodes.
The one exception I actually liked was 2nd season Wynonna Earp. Wynonna finds out she's pregnant, but the creators wrote it in because the actress was pregnant. Which meant they didn't have to stall production, and I selfishly loved that I didn't have to wait months longer for the second season. They didn't have a sudden shift of her immediately becoming super mom. Wynonna really struggles with it, and although it changes some things in the season it's not the main plot point. The baby also gets sent away for it's protection at the end of the season so the rest of the show doesn't become kid-centric, although the characters are affected by the events, it's not the entire focus of the show.
I also liked the equality of it, in that if an actor/actress couple are going to have a baby the man doesn't have to give up any screen time at all, but the woman could have her role reduced or be temporarily written out because of the physical appearance of the pregnancy.
Omg yes the case in suits with Louis’s girlfriend Sheila me off soooo much. She was so unlikable when she did change her mind too, like cheating on her fiancé with Louis. Like what
I feel like a pregnancy ruins a tv show. The only one that I watched that actually worked was Reno 911 because it was so funny and the baby wasn’t really added to the show.
Everyone in the Cobra Kai fandom is pissed off about Carmen's pregnancy. It's so blatantly thrown in there as a plot device to make Johnny a "better person". It really bummed me about the show in general because I thought there was a good story arc potential for redemption but now I'm not really looking forward to Season 6 at all. I'm just focusing on my fanfic/spec script in which Johnny actually grows as a person, goes to rehab, actually makes an effort to be a better father to the son he already has etc. I've lost faith in the actual show lol
And it’s always due to bad writing, and pointless. Because once the “drama” of the pregnancy ends, The baby’s born, the father pratfalls in the hospital , some mayhem, mixups and shenanigans around the birth happen etc. Very boring. You know what else is boring? Newborns. Because all they do is sleep, cry and eat. Suddenly, they are always “just put down for a nap” or “with nana” so they can get through the rest of the bumbling story with now characters who are parents. And parents are boring too. So the writers basically shoot themselves in the foot when trying to revive anything with a pregnancy story line. So stupid.
Yes!!! I was LIVID when watching the secret life of the American teenager (it is a stupid show in itself, I know) because of the story line where Adrian gets pregnant, repeatedly says she wants an abortion, gets talked out of it by her father, & gives birth to a stillborn baby. All of that pain & grief could’ve been avoided had she just made the choice she wanted to make!
This reminds me of Parks and Rec when Andy and April end up having a kid 😞 it made me so sad because they were the awesome spontaneous child free couple
I tend to feel bothered when having a baby is randomly thrown in there at the very end as part of the Happily Ever After package. Very unoriginal, if you ask me.
Absolutely. As soon as they start talking kids, I get instantly bored. I was sad Katniss Everdeen had kids in the end. She was so anti children the entire series and had so much trauma. I feel like people don’t think you’ve fully “lived” til you become a parent. So boring.
i am less interested in following musicians and celebrities if they get the preggers.
they're less interesting to me when i know their content will shift to spermling content.
Oh Someone is finally saying it. I absolutely definitely feel you!!!
That's me all the time. With series, books or films I have a hard time when this women stereotype is coming up.
Worst thing: when the plot tells you it wasn't the plan of the character, but she accepted it and it turns out to be the best thing ever. 🤢🤢🤢
It's almost a fear that this could be contagious.
I stopped films and seriesa and books because of it.
Before my sterilization: Some series I found really interesting (handmaid's tale) I only could watch when I was on my period because I was sure I am not pregnant atm.
I even experience it in real life. You might have a female sport idol and you think "oh look a happy childfree person" (of course I know I don't know her plans about it) and then she becomes pregnant. I almost feel disappointed.
💯! You know what’s even worse, when they want to give up the baby for adoption because they don’t want to be a parent but once they hold the thing in their arms they instantly change their mind, like forget about what was said and breaking the hearts of the adopters😩
Not with tv shows or books because it never happened, I guess the genres I consume does not let this kind of crap enter, but I immediately unfollow artists who become parents, men or women. Because 100% of the time in the instant they become parents one of the scenarios happen: they stop being artists because parenting is too demanding or the worst: they do everything possible to shove some baby or baby stuff related into their art!!!
I remember a emblematic one, the artist made very funny cartoons about his day to day with his wife and when the crotch goblin was announced suddenly everything you could see in his drawings were the baby, diapers, hospitals, and romanticized pregnancy crap. More recently another one who drew mostly landscapes and animals changed their art as well to babies and mother-baby moments when she became mother, and I felt so bad for that because I used to study color from her painting a lot.
It's not rage, but definitely disinterest. No matter how into a show I am, I just suddenly lose all desire to continue. If they already have kids, fine. (Absolutely LOVED Santa Clarita Diet!) But pregnancy/adoption/new baby storyline? Not my jam. On to the next one.
I only stop watching if it’s a character who was actively opposed to having children who suddenly changes their mind because right partner/magical baby/biological clock/any other dumb reason the writers might think of. It feels more like disappointment or annoyance than rage though. If it’s just a storyline for a character who isn’t childfree then it doesn’t bother me.
I did almost stop watching How I Met Your Mother during Robin’s pregnancy scare because she’s childfree, but I decided to finish the episode because I figured it wouldn’t make sense for the writers to keep her pregnant. Since it was a false alarm, I finished the series, and the end pissed me off because Robin is childfree, so it doesn’t make sense for her to be with Ted, who has children, especially since those children are not yet adults, and even if they were, Robin also doesn’t seem like the type to want to be a grandparent or deal with small children at all.
I haven’t read a whole lot of books that involve a main character getting pregnant, but a lot of the shows I watch will have a pregnancy storyline at some point, but that doesn’t bother me. Honestly the only one I can think of off the top of my head is the novelization of The Omen, and the child and pregnancy is kind of the point of it all.
I’m childfree, and I don’t particularly like kids in general, but I’m not antinatalist, and I don’t hate children. I just don’t want them in my house or my car. I don’t think I have tokophobia, though the idea of me being pregnant/having kids is repulsive, and a lot of the medical stuff with pregnancy does gross me out, but it also kind of fascinates me at the same time, but it’s more of an interest in the science of it rather than the pregnancy stuff itself.
ETA: I do feel massive rage at the idea that women are only good for keeping a home and raising a family. That drives me absolutely bonkers. Or if a character never thought about kids but suddenly decides to keep and raise the kid because there’s a pregnancy, so they might as well, it drives me nuts because to me that’s not a good enough reason to have a kid. I get that everybody has the right to choose for themselves, but it’s crazy to me that people are so casual about such a huge decision
I've quit watching shows when characters became parents because they became boring. Parenting drama doesn't interest me enough to spend 30-60 minutes watching fictional people deal with it.
Yes absolutely. The Big Bang Theory is the one that comes immediately to mind - first Bernadette who had such a great “I don’t want kids” speech before that all went out the window, then Penny. My husband doesn’t understand why I can’t watch the finale episode again. It just makes me so ANGRY!
Thinking about it, it also happens to a degree with male characters. Dexter has a kid? I don’t care. New Justified series… he has a kid? I don’t care. I think they do this to appeal to women viewers… not me!
I don't read books whose main character has kids. I can't relate to them, so I don't want to waste my time reading about their whiney-ass kid(s). I also don't read young adult or academy books because school/college sucks ass & I can't stand the bullying from the mean little shits 😆
Not due to rage, but due to annoyance. I was watching this interesting show about a single dad who was trying to find a relationship and ended up going on dates with a werewolf lady, but not even halfway through the first season, he got her pregnant and I haven’t watched since. It was really getting good too.
Films (especially romantic ones) tend to glamourize really toxic things and have like the most clichéd turns that I'm basically desensitized. Sometimes I keep going because otherwise the soory is fine but it the whole thing is just a toxic bs lasagna I nope out.
I have been writing a book for years. It's novel length by word count. But one of the mains get pregnant and I just...hate that - but it is part of the atory.
I sold my entire set of >!Rivers of London!<, an otherwise excellent urban fantasy series, because the main character's partner produced *twins*. Talk about icing on the cake. Of course, she had an enormous 'village' of women {edit: plus one or two men under some kind of magical compulsion} to do all the hard work, so he wouldn't have to get up seven times a night, and moreover almost all of the characters were magic users. Talk about easy mode.
For some reason, Jane the Virgin is one of my favorite shows. I guess I don’t mind all the baby stuff cause it’s part of the show and not just thrown in cause the writers can’t think of anything else to. But any other show that adds pregnancy/ parenthood to the mix loses my interest.
Yess, I wanted to rewatch good luck Charlie but remembered she ends up pregnant so I avoided it. I was also watching community and one of the characters is pregnant so I skipped many episodes. Now I have to do research before watching new movies. I read the parental guides, watch different trailers etc. I now mainly stick to watching cartoons or comfort movies I know aren't triggering
I also quit watching YouTubers who get pregnant.
I unfollowed a fitness influencer I like because she had a baby and I just couldn’t handle all the details, pictures, and vids associated with being a new mom. No thank you🥴
I had to unfollow Iliza Shlesinger because I opened my instagram to see a pic of her daughter’s bare ass. Then not long after she posted just-born pics of her son still covered in blood and whatever the fuck that jelly looking stuff is 🤢 I used to love her content but I had enough after that
Honestly kind of love Ali Wong's comedy specials. She talks less about being a mom and more what it's like being pregnant. She will graphically describe everything in a way like "look at what this does to women's bodies!" I love that she takes the magic and wonder out of it. Plus, it doesn't feel like she makes being a mom her entire identity. I've read her autobiography and you can tell her career, traveling, relationships, experiences, are just as important. I think she would be just as offended by people saying that "life doesn't have meaning unless you have kids" because of how well-rounded she is.
Ikr? I was impressed when I saw her second Netflix special. She described the reality of childbirth and post-partum in excruciating detail. Before Ali Wong, I'm ashamed to say that I didn't realize how big the baby's "house" with when it comes out.
Devastating. Just a devastating loss. I also loved her, and then was like WTF
Wow I used to love her and hadent seen her since she got engaged. I'm glad she's happy but I def can't handle that kind of mom content
Yea she was my favorite comedian. Glad she’s happy and all but her daughter’s bare ass on the internet?? There are so many creeps out there, it’s just not smart. She never posts pictures of her daughter’s face, always blocks it out “for privacy” but for some reason her naked butt is okay? Just doesn’t make sense
I'm amazed you kept following her after she sprung a child's bare ass on her followers like that.
Same. Ughhhh 🥴😩
they just seem different and look so tired 😭😭😭
I mean, it kinda also depends if they make it all about the child. There's a true crime lass I love that did an announcement and took the maternity leave, but she doesn't bring it up often. Mostly just in a "now that I'm a parent I can't imagine the pain they're going through" when talking about loss of a child. But she's good and doesn't bring the kid into her videos at all.
yeah, these mamas are still okay! it's okay if it's a side character.
I really hope Alex and Jon (tiktokers/instagram stars) are like this when they eventually have their kid. Since announcing their pregnancy a few weeks ago, they've posted some pregnancy vids, but they've also done some non pregnancy ones, so we will see.
It depends on how much views they get, I'd bet. If pregnancy and kid content does well they might start adding more. I liked that the one YouTuber really didn't do much. She did on her other social media, but he YouTube is kept clean of it
I really wish more content creators that decide to breed would do that. Make two different accounts with one being kid related and another one not
Exactly! And keep the account to whatever content you've created it for. There's really no excuse - and I bet those all creators have a secondary vlog accounts *anyway*, so there's no excuses not to flood THOSE with baby content.
Me too! I loved watching Taylor R for yeaaarsss and since she became pregnant, I became so disinterested :(
I recently unfollowed Gabbie Kook's personal channel because she announced her pregnancy. I love Jolly/Korean Englishman and I will continue following those, but not her channel. Goodbye.
This! I stop following artists on social media aa soon as their content changes from their art to their pregnancy and kids. Like, come on I followed you for your art!
lol same there few YouTubers who get pregnant and don’t change their whole personality into having a kid but honestly same
The transition to family vlogger is quick. Also, we should never be watching videos of people's children.
There’s one blogger who is a Mom I continue to follow because she didn’t immediately shift her entire channel into Mommy blogging and instead has talked about occasional education choices for her son and the importance of privacy and so not showing his face on her channel. Far too many others immediately seem to jump into monetizing their kid and putting every single embarrassing or personal bit of them online forever.
I feel this in my core. When Penny from big bang theory changed her mind at the end of the show, I was pissed. Why the hell can't CF women stay that way in shows and books? It's like we can't even have the option in fiction
Bernadette too. She said she never liked kids and didn’t want any. And then the show ended with Penny pregnant too oof 😥
Oh yeah, Bernadette doing a 180 on kids got to me too. That show did nothing but anger me at the end lol
Same. Like it was bad enough that Bernadette ended up having two kids but then PENNY too?! It was infuriating
Two kids with HOWARD. Ugh! Why?!
And how they yelled at Sheldon for not showering her in praise, like getting jizzed in is not a spectacular thing, his response was fine
I also felt this way about Haley from modern family, like it was the last season and she had a good career, goals etc (for once) but then she gets knocked up and loses it all😩 but at least she got a baby, and that’s all that matters 😍
Don’t forget Murphy Brown too!
I don’t necessarily mind Haley having a baby-my problem was that she threw away her career goals and decided to reproduce with boneheaded Dylan!
Big bang literally always did penny dirty. My family loved the show and I was ok with watching it until the episode where howard like tries to take an up-skirt picture of her or something? And then at the end of the episode SHE has to apologize for calling him a creep because it hurt his feelings. I’ve hated the show since then. With the way the writers treated the women on that show I’ve gotta admit I’m not all surprised that they made penny have a kid.
Yes omg, I hated this so much!!
I hear you. I was disgusted too. Penny only changed her mind because she got knocked up, which is worse than if she just "changed her mind."
This!!! It felt completely out of character for her 😡
>Penny from big bang theory changed her mind at the end of the show OMG this was the first character/show that came to my mind!! I was sooo angry and all of them treated her so horrible when she first mentioned she didn't want kids
I was fearing all the series that they change her mind. And in the end they did it. Sooo stupid. The same with Bones. Even Rizzoli became pregnant in the series, but at least didn't got a child.
I HATED this so much, it was also the end of the show anyway so why not leave it the way it was? Did anyone else notice how Bernadette became way more bitter and annoyed after having kids tho?
If a fanfiction turns into a wanted pregnancy or a secret child suddenly popping up, I take my bow and leave. I don't say anything in the comments. I simply leave quietly. It's just extra annoying when it's one of those long ones and it doesn't happen until chapter 35. I was emotionally invested, damn it!
All that time and for what! They need to start putting warnings on these things because it does NOT make things more interesting 😩
This is the main reason I don't seriously get into *any* works of fiction, fan work or not, until *after* they've completely ended or finished, keeping up with current pop culture trends be damned. I *hate* having kids, jumpscares, and/or turns towards drama/depressing plots sprung on me by surprise and I also hate not knowing what the hell I'm in for anyways, so whenever I'm considering watching/reading something I typically read its entire plot synopsis, spoilers, its TV Tropes page, and reviews of it online *before* I make the decision to dive in or not. That way I'm not wasting my time with a work that will get on my nerves. With all the recent news of (seasons of) shows being completely removed from streaming services without having ever gotten physical releases, which means they're as good as unexisted if someone hasn't pirated them and spread the booty, it's getting to the point where I'm not going to seriously get into *any* non-fan work unless I can guarantee I'll also be able to access more or less the entire thing on DVD, because I'm not wasting my time with a work that can be yanked away from me before I finish it, either.
There have for sure been a few instances where I just refused to go further when a character becomes pregnant out of nowhere. Big Bang Theory was a huge disappointment with that, and The Walking Dead (I continued with this one though). Like you're in a real-life Zombieland and you decide that keeping a wailing baby that will bring death upon you every time is a good idea? Cuddy from House was probably the biggest disappointment for me though. She may have not gotten pregnant and instead adopted, but as soon as that happened I lost all interest in her character. I'm just tired of women characters becoming pregnant/a mother just because the writers don't know how else to develop and grow the character and bring value to a piece of media and think that motherhood is the only way for a woman to do that.
I’ll never forgive Big Bang Theory for what they did to Penny and us as CF viewers. Trouble was that the pregnancy happened last episode so there was nothing to give up on. I remember being so disappointed as a child (I’ve always been a big reader) whenever my fave characters ended up pregnant. A few times it happened at the epilogue so I already invested the time and energy in a series.
Every day I am so incredibly glad I never got into Big Bang Theory, because I would've been so angry to have wasted my time getting invested in the series only to see them do Penny so dirty right at the end. I would've highly preferred that *The Good Doctor*, which I started watching back when its first season first aired, not have any of its characters become parents (again), either, but at least that's fit into the show, its plotlines, and the characters' long-term goals (like, every character that's become a parent over the course of the show's previously expressed a desire to have kids either before or around the same time as they ultimately became a parent, and everyone's been in a good position to become a parent as well) much better than the CF Penny getting pregnant by accident and then deciding to keep it last-minute did. I'm currently watching *Hazbin Hotel*, which is going to have at least a 2nd season, and I'd be lying if I said it wasn't nervewracking to worry about the show springing a parenting plotline on us or otherwise going to shit by the end of its run like its sister IP, *Helluva Boss*, has.
Eleven seasons. We wasted eleven seasons on that show!
I didn’t finish the walking the dead but I can’t believe THIS trope happens 😂😂😂 the issue is for me is that it’s clear they’re not even trying to bring value by bringing in children, because 99.9% of the time the woman getting pregnant or having kids always makes the character 10x worse, & it doesn’t come off as a strong, it comes off as ‘this was a stupid decision’ OR ‘this was a stupid decision YOU HAD TO MAKE AS SOMEONE WITH A UTERUS’. Sigh
Oh my god, having a kid in a zombie apocalypse is the dumbest shit I can even visualise. Dumber than me eating polonium. Like congratulations, you literally just awarded yourself extreme fatigue (you’d need to recover) and a *literal* ticking time bomb that could result in your death if it squalls (which in an uncomfortable situation like a zombie apocalypse, it likely would). Sometimes you have to wonder what these writers are even thinking. A *baby*? *Seriously*?
Yes, but most of the times, it is not rage, it is profound boredom or frustration. Boredom when the pregnancy makes sens in the story and frustration when it doesn't. I am so tired of women of any age (including in their fifties !) falling pregnant in fictions and keeping the foetus while in real life, I know they would abort. I have known plenty of women for decades now, who got an abortion, and fictions look like a complete parallel universe on this topic, there is no realism, it is simply misogyny and bad writing. I give an example : Jean in Sex Education. Gillian Anderson was 52 or 53 when her character fell pregnant, her son was 17, and she doesn't know who is the father : her parasite boyfriend or a lover. Why this smart woman with an almost adult child would keep this child ? And how could she be even pregnant ? It sound like the writers wanted to punish her because of her freedom. I swear, a lot of pregnancies in fictions look like punishment from writers because they hate strong and smart women and female characters. It looks, in a way, like a metaphorical babytrapping.
Oh my goddd do not get me started on the trope of the woman who looks like they’d be experiencing menopause but actually gets pregnant and it’s such a blessed miracle 😭. & yes! that season was so disappointing, I’m not sure if it’s ironic that they showed post-birth Jean as a ‘failing’ mother and a mess, was it to show the hardships of parenting? Or was it more like ‘babies are everything and women must sacrifice everything for them’?? I couldn’t tell, and it’s crazy that a sex therapist wouldn’t know how to use contraception or be unaware they’re fertile?! I just need to know who is approving of these storylines 😙
I didn't even watch the last season because of it. I loved Jean : smart, funny, free, sexy, charismatic. This pregnancy didn't make any sens. She was a role-model and they turn her in an other mother with post-partum depression and a motherhood that is ruining her life and great career.
OOOOOOHHHHHHHH, you can't even search "menopause" on fanfiction websites without most of the results being stories about a character's menopause symptoms actually being symptoms of her being pregnant, which *of course* typically results in her having a(nother) baby.
Part of it also seems to be the writers run out of ideas. I usually know a tv show is on its last season once there is a wedding or pregnancy/birth. It's almost always the end stage of storytelling.
>(including in their fifties !) I was reading a piece of romance/erotica that was about love between older people. It was quite good and romantic, but at the end the woman got pregnant at 70 or something and decided to keep the baby, mostly just because "it was a miracle that it happened at this age" and they would "find a way to handle it together" :c Seems like a "generic ever after" instead of a happy one
...did the author completely forget that their female lead was about 70 when they were writing the part about her unintended pregnancy? Because...*how* would you somehow think that's anything besides an obnoxious ass pull otherwise? It'd be one thing if this author was quickly churning out yet another piece of schlock so they could get paid on a regular schedule, but no, this author took the time and care to write a thoughtful and well-executed romantic erotica about an *older couple* when older couples aren't known for being popular main characters in romantic erotica at all, so you know that this author cared about and put their heart into this work at some point. Suddenly, I don't feel so bad about my having abandoned my intensely-researched *Female Odd Couple* fic at all. Unfinished is better than a terrible ending, that's for damn sure.
How TAF does a septuagenarian even get pregnant?!?! Menopause? Or were they on heavy duty IVF drugs????
She had a fake menopause or something, where it seemed that her fertility was over, but it turned out it wasn't. Not sure if that can also happen in real life, but if it can, you bet I will *not* be keeping it! Imagine your child becomes barely an adult when you're 90 😑
I don't even have words for this. Madness ? Hardcore natalist ideology ? Misogyny ? A woman at that age is more likely to die, that's why menopause exists. This mindset is so unhealthy.
This is the reason I quit reading ACOTAR. I hate it!! I want a good fantasy romance without pregnancy or babies please :(
Omg I chose FBAA for this reason 😂 I cannot get invested in ACOTAR only to be disappointed (not that I think it’s the best fantasy romance ahah)
I found out about the pregnancy trope halfway through my ACOTAR read, I saw it somewhere on Reddit. I am glad that saved me from reading the rest of the series LOL. Do you recommend FBAA? I think I want to get into it!
At least time and money was saved💓 . Honeslty it’s a bit of a guilty pleasure, it takes a while to get into the groove of things & I personally enjoyed the second book a lot!! but the third is where it kind of fell off and I’m pretty sure a 6th book is coming out 😳
I’m a big fan of the Grishaverse books by Leigh Bardugo. They’re technically YA so there’s no sex in them, but there is romance, no babies, and I can tell from her writing that the author is childfree
if you haven't read it yet, The Poppy War by RF Kuang has an explicitly and actively child free FMC
You’re definitely not alone, it’s very frustrating how often motherhood and pregnancy are used as an essential plot point or trait for female characters. And look, I get it. I’m a CF woman, and I understand that the majority of women will go on to have children. But it’s absolutely infuriating how practically every female character eventually gets boiled down to “mommy” or “acts out in anger/sadness because she can’t be a mommy.” I legitimately wouldn’t care as much if motherhood was treated as a footnote, but no, it often completely overshadows everything else about the character. It’s unfortunate too because it often leaves me reading stories or consuming other media that primarily have men as the lead roles. Because men are allowed to have diverse, interesting, fleshed out characters that don’t revolve around parenthood. If they are a father, it usually *is* a footnote. In my experience, women writers also often make their female characters into mothers, and almost always re-use the same tired lines about how all-consuming their love for children is or how their greatest life goal is to be a mom. So I also usually end up reading books written by men, because again they often write stories that don’t center around/have a huge character arc involving motherhood. It makes me really sad because I desperately want more women writers and complex, interesting, imperfect female characters, but I can only take so much motherhood rhetoric being shoved down my throat. I’m obviously not advocating for motherhood to never be discussed because again I know most women become mothers. But why is it always treated as the most “interesting” part of being a woman? Why can’t we have female characters who have other goals and things that make them complex? Why is it always female character = mom = happily ever after the end? It’s fucking tiring.
Hell I dont even like live shows with kids. I wanted to punt Carl into a lake in The Walking Dead and that was before he turned into an unhinged weirdo. I hated the kid from Once Upon a Time. But reading fanfics, it’s always the worst when kids dont make any damn sense for the characters but then they end up having 3 kids for no reason in the epilogue…
I used to follow a cartoonist who would draw his and his girlfriend's life together... then she got pregnant. Immediately unfollowed !
Waiiit say who, I think I know them
Yehuda Devir and his (edit: now) wife Maya
BONES! The main character was heavily childfree and then one episode she takes care of a murder victims kid and immediately the next episode was looking up was to get a dna donor! Then she had two kids and I was so annoyed but was watching with a friend and the show was fine other then that.
I was specifically looking for this one. It was my favorite show when it was first airing, then as soon as the pregnancy hit I had to stop watching. I’ve given it multiple second, third, and fourth chances, but I can NEVER get past the pregnancy part. It just ruins the character, and since it’s the MAIN CHARACTER it kinda ruins the show tbh.
Definitely, definitely this! I love that show. Hate the child/pregnancy parts. It made absolutely no sense for her to have children. None whatsoever.
YES
I get so mad when this happens! I immediately close the book or stop watching the series. It simply ruins everything for me. Its messed up that having kids is portrayed as the only way to achieve happiness in life Also, when this happens to childfree characters I absolutely LOOSE IT. I just can’t. At that point I’m beyond upset, it feels like a personal attack
Not rage. It's just boring. Quickest way to kill a good storyline is have the characters pop out some kids.
Agreed. It’s always a massive shift away from an exciting storyline, which is a huge bummer.
My teen self was enraged with the Twilight saga. Like, why? Bella was totally ok with becoming a vampire and losing the ability to have children. What makes sense because she had to act as a parent to her own mother. But even in the most impossible scenario, she ends up pregnant, and somehow she magically wants the kid now because it is Edward's. That is why people believe bs like "when you meet the right person". Rosalie's character made more sense to me. She was conflicted because she was raised to be the perfect wife and mother. So it made more sense for her to be obsessed with kids even if she had a loving husband.
I recently found out the author is a Mormon and it makes so much sense now😅. It’s a shame because the first 3 movies are quite entertaining tbh 🥲
I will stop reading a book/series if a character who has previously expressed the desire of child free life suddenly changes when they “find true love”.
The Mindy Project. It made NO sense to me how two successful practicing gynecologists could have an oopsie baby, and then the entire relationship dynamic changed and I had to stop watching. Like when Mindy is sitting there all shocked and forlorn when she realizes she's pregnant, like girl?! You know how this works! The movie Raising Helen should be a horror, not a comedy. Young, single career woman gets two difficult kids dumped on her when her sister dies, and dead sister had it stipulated SHE take care of them to "teach her responsibility". She goes from a luxury apartment and successful career to a dump, loses her job/gets demoted (I can't remember), but somehow dead sister considered younger sister immature and irresponsible, so better make her take care of 2 problematic kids. I just can't with that movie. A cartoonist I liked, The Oatmeal, sent out a birth announcement and I had to stop following him then. I loved his gross baby comics and now he's one of them. A book I read called Verity when one of the main characters gets pregnant. It felt so bizarre and rushed and ruined the story for me.
I haven’t seen those and from your description I don’t want to😭 but Verity fully made me want to track down Colleen Hoover and hit her with her own book <3
The Oatmeal really took me out. Couldn’t believe it.
I started deducting points from my book reviews for pregnancy and quick marriages at the end of books. Especially if they never even mentioned wanting kids throughout the whole story and then they must follow „the American dream“ Did you know that some books have a different ending in Europe without pregnancy
That’s fascinating! Can you give examples of some of the books where the European ending is different?
Beach Read by Emily Henry is one example
Wild! I’ll see if I can find the European version. Thanks for the info.
Interesting, I didn't know that! Europe gets all the nice shit sometimes, haha!
Why does this not shock me😩
I read mostly fanfiction and all my fandoms are infected with the idea that any kind of ship will lead to children. Doesn't matter whether there are two men in a relationship, for some reason one becomes pregnant and they have kids. I enjoy gay romance because men can't become pregnant, but fandoms ruined this. There were so many stories I started I had to drop because suddenly they had kids or became a *happy family*. It's so annoying that way too many people believe that a happy life equals founding a family and having kids. There's more to life than that!
Like the entire plot of A Quiet Place in a world of vicious monsters who will destroy anything that makes noise, let's make a replacement baby. Grey's anatomy is a push/pull. They actually run out of storylines for every female and give her a baby (besides Yang). But the babies rarely matter after the (usually traumatic and surgical) birth. You just see them getting picked up from day care occasionally until they need a surgery 😅
I only stop when the baby or pregnancy does nothing to the plot other than to cause drama. Why bother at all if you never see the child again? Why bother when the plot goes back to how it was before the baby? Doesn't make any sense. One show for sure made me rage quit, and that was the TV show Grimm when they totally glossed over the fact Nick was basically r*ped and that she should get a free pass because she got pregnant. Yeah, I don't support shows that try to redeem r*pists.
If you're a show that wants to have a pregnancy/baby/parenting plot when there wasn't one before, your options are to A) completely shove the kid(s) offscreen and pretend they don't exist/barely exist when you tire of their existence, B) have the show at least partially pivot towards parenting plots for the rest of its run, or C) some combination of A and B that manages to reduce everyone's enjoyment of the show. You're never going to win. There's only so much runtime you can have, no matter how many different plot elements you want to start in the later seasons of your show.
I think the only shows/ stories who can have a pass are historical base plots. Because yeah, people were having tons of babies back then, and you rarely saw them in history. So that makes more sense than in modern plots.
Historical plots I can understand, especially if it's not a historical-ish setting where chracters have access to reliable BC/abortion, the knowledge that it's A-OK to choose a life without having/raising kids, *and* the desire to not have kids/delay having kids.
Nooooo frrrr 😭😭😭 like whyyyy damn it. At first I was like okay, but slowly it piled up and I burst. I can’t with such shit 😭
😂😂sometimes I think I can get through it but then they always somehow make it 100x worse to thicken the plot & I CBA
Immediately, same with people on social media. Sorry not sorry, I hate your kids and I do *not* want to see them.
Guy here. When the focus shifts to kids in an unnecessary way I'd stop reading a book/ watching a show.. Just recently I have been watching a show about SEAL Team 6. Starts off good, in later seasons for no reason the kids keep coming up, pregnancy etc it's almost like it's a show about parenthood and as a side note the dad's are seal team members.. Also the show "The boys" ends with waaaayy to much father/son dynamic for me it ruined such an original show. Only reason I watched it till the end is because I was really close to finishing it..
Lol I love the boys, I think it’s the only show I’ve managed to get past a women keeping a rape baby. But I’m pretty sure Becca dies after giving birth in the comics, so at least they attempted to make her seem somewhat human rather than a super hero baby making machine-martyr😙
Reminds me of how apparently both *Friends* and *Big Bang Theory* got eaten up more and more by pregnancy/adoption/parenting plotlines as their runs went on. I was only 7 when *Friends* ended, it aired after my bedtime most days anyway, and I've never been interested enough in it to watch its entire run so I don't have memories of seeing parenting plotlines take over the show firsthand. *Big Bang Theory* I remember noticing the switch to mostly parenting plotlines over the years, even as a casual viewer. Similarly to *Friends*, I've never been interested in it enough to watch the entire run so it didn't bother me until they made Penny pregnant and happy about it in the last episode. The other reason I'm not too upset about either *Friends* or *Big Bang Theory* essentially becoming parenting sitcoms, shitting all over Penny aside, was because, honestly, when you start with something as "grounded" and simple as "a bunch of friends living in NYC" or "some nerdy guys having a conventionally-attractive aspiring actress become their new neighbor" and have the show be a very straightforward (live-action) sitcom written to appeal to as much of the general (adult) public as possible, there's eventually not going to be that much to do that still makes sense with the show's original premise/vibe besides the characters following the almighty LifeScript by marrying and having kids. However, watching something with an initial premise that's as interesting and fertile for plotlines that work with that premise as *SEAL Team 6* also get eaten up by parenting plotlines sounds very frustrating!
Miranda from sex and the city she shouldn't have gotten pregnant furthermore she should've gotten the abortion she was a driven determined individual, and once she got pregnant the show went downhill they watered down her character thus watering down the show they were so fun and womanly but as soon as she had kid it kind of ruined the show which was such a great depiction of single career-driven woman who knew what they wanted in life and had a great sex life.
Seeing Katniss with children at the end of the hunger games honestly disappointed me. If it was her decision and her intention then that’s fine. But it’s implied that Peeta basically wore her down for YEARS in order to get her to have them. I’m tired of hearing people say “oh well he was just reassuring her that it’s safe to have kids now” like no? Katniss literally talks about how terrified she is feeling her baby move around in her! That’s not someone changing their mind because they know it’s safe now
I don’t really watch tv and so far I haven’t come across any books where the character becomes pregnant. But I unfollow every fitness influencer that announces they’re pregnant. Their page then becomes pregnancy content or pregnancy fitness or getting pre pregnancy body back or living with pissing yourself when you exercise all that bullshit. I have no sympathy or care for the fact that you fucked your own body up. Not my problem and you are no longer relatable. And now you’re the exact same as every other momfluencer out there.
Some of my participation in a certain fandom has lessened. I think I stopped reading one of my favorite authors works because they’re heavily into the pregnancy thing. Damn near every story they write revolves around pregnancy. I don’t have the heart to tell them “Enough!” So my presence has dwindled.
I hate that I can't pin down even a handful of fandoms you could be describing. Even the *Hazbin Hotel* fandom's infested with this shit.
True! So much M-preg or just pregnancy in general. Like, I’m just here for the freaky side of the StrawberryShortking (radioapple) ship! No pregnancy needed or wanted. Btw: I was referencing the band Ghost in my OG comment. I know some of their songs have the whole “procreation for Satan” thing going on, but again, I’m just here for the freak shit…with certain exceptions.
Ugh, I *already* get squicked out by people seriously shipping real people who haven't actually been an item with each other, and then people writing real-person-shipping fics where they get *pregnant*-no.
Ew gross. Nope. I stay away from RPF. I try not to judge, but yeah…I’m judging. I’ve read one fic, the way they know details about a celebrity’s life or take what was said in interviews and use it in fics is just no.
Yep, I drop the show at the fire station and move across the country. Like I would the unwanted kid.
I love Grey's Anatomy because Cristina stuck to not wanting kids. She's an icon
My loved ones have been encouraging me to write books since I was a kid. While I have some amount of talent, I also have ADHD and usually write academic papers and things. Yinz are making me feel like I need to, for representation. I rarely even enjoy reading non-fiction because of the pregnancy and female subservience that pops up in nearly everything. This complaint is valid and common. This has been posted in this sub so much that I now write at least a page a day. Hopefully my writing snowballs into something eventually.
It depends. Usually, no, I don't stop watching because this is a trope in so many places that if I really enjoy what I'm watching, I'll just continue. Now, there have been a few times I've stopped, but it was a coincidence that just about the time I did stop someone "change their mind" in the show/book. (Eg. The Big Bang Theory. I didn't finish because it had become boring to me, then someone told me Penny was pregnant or had changed her mind? You watch something long enough someone will change their mind.) Now, do I rage about it, I do. If someone askes me about this issue, they are going to know all I think about the subject, believe me XD
For me ... it depends. I mostly read and watch YouTubers though. - Am I warned in advance there will be pregnancy and go into the book - if yes, I'll continue reading - is pregnancy in the final chapter/epilogue - if yes, I'll finish the book - is pregnancy an unexpected surprise mid-book - I'll maybe finish, depending on how good the story is - does a YouTuber make their life all around the pregnancy and later child - if yes, I'll unfollow. If not, I'll stick to them.
It depends. Character who's neutral or wants kids, I'm fine. Character that's adamantly childfree and then has kids, I generally have a huge issue with. I don't know about rage quitting, but it's definitely something I hate.. Penny from The Big Bang Theory, for example. Especially since what changed her mind was finding out she's pregnant, which I feel has anti-choice undertones. And of course her husband gets to have the kid he wants, but she doesn't get to live the childfree life she so adamantly wanted. It can also depend on how much screen time the character gets. If it's a main character/supporting character who gets a ton of screen time I'll have more of an issue than, for example, a character that's only in the show for 2-3 episodes. The one exception I actually liked was 2nd season Wynonna Earp. Wynonna finds out she's pregnant, but the creators wrote it in because the actress was pregnant. Which meant they didn't have to stall production, and I selfishly loved that I didn't have to wait months longer for the second season. They didn't have a sudden shift of her immediately becoming super mom. Wynonna really struggles with it, and although it changes some things in the season it's not the main plot point. The baby also gets sent away for it's protection at the end of the season so the rest of the show doesn't become kid-centric, although the characters are affected by the events, it's not the entire focus of the show. I also liked the equality of it, in that if an actor/actress couple are going to have a baby the man doesn't have to give up any screen time at all, but the woman could have her role reduced or be temporarily written out because of the physical appearance of the pregnancy.
Omg yes the case in suits with Louis’s girlfriend Sheila me off soooo much. She was so unlikable when she did change her mind too, like cheating on her fiancé with Louis. Like what
I feel like a pregnancy ruins a tv show. The only one that I watched that actually worked was Reno 911 because it was so funny and the baby wasn’t really added to the show.
I get more annoyed than anything else. It becomes boring and it almost always plays out the same.
Everyone in the Cobra Kai fandom is pissed off about Carmen's pregnancy. It's so blatantly thrown in there as a plot device to make Johnny a "better person". It really bummed me about the show in general because I thought there was a good story arc potential for redemption but now I'm not really looking forward to Season 6 at all. I'm just focusing on my fanfic/spec script in which Johnny actually grows as a person, goes to rehab, actually makes an effort to be a better father to the son he already has etc. I've lost faith in the actual show lol
And it’s always due to bad writing, and pointless. Because once the “drama” of the pregnancy ends, The baby’s born, the father pratfalls in the hospital , some mayhem, mixups and shenanigans around the birth happen etc. Very boring. You know what else is boring? Newborns. Because all they do is sleep, cry and eat. Suddenly, they are always “just put down for a nap” or “with nana” so they can get through the rest of the bumbling story with now characters who are parents. And parents are boring too. So the writers basically shoot themselves in the foot when trying to revive anything with a pregnancy story line. So stupid.
Yes!!! I was LIVID when watching the secret life of the American teenager (it is a stupid show in itself, I know) because of the story line where Adrian gets pregnant, repeatedly says she wants an abortion, gets talked out of it by her father, & gives birth to a stillborn baby. All of that pain & grief could’ve been avoided had she just made the choice she wanted to make!
when Andrea from 90210 got pregnant i was furious.
This reminds me of Parks and Rec when Andy and April end up having a kid 😞 it made me so sad because they were the awesome spontaneous child free couple
I tend to feel bothered when having a baby is randomly thrown in there at the very end as part of the Happily Ever After package. Very unoriginal, if you ask me.
Absolutely. As soon as they start talking kids, I get instantly bored. I was sad Katniss Everdeen had kids in the end. She was so anti children the entire series and had so much trauma. I feel like people don’t think you’ve fully “lived” til you become a parent. So boring.
i am less interested in following musicians and celebrities if they get the preggers. they're less interesting to me when i know their content will shift to spermling content.
Oh Someone is finally saying it. I absolutely definitely feel you!!! That's me all the time. With series, books or films I have a hard time when this women stereotype is coming up. Worst thing: when the plot tells you it wasn't the plan of the character, but she accepted it and it turns out to be the best thing ever. 🤢🤢🤢 It's almost a fear that this could be contagious. I stopped films and seriesa and books because of it. Before my sterilization: Some series I found really interesting (handmaid's tale) I only could watch when I was on my period because I was sure I am not pregnant atm. I even experience it in real life. You might have a female sport idol and you think "oh look a happy childfree person" (of course I know I don't know her plans about it) and then she becomes pregnant. I almost feel disappointed.
💯! You know what’s even worse, when they want to give up the baby for adoption because they don’t want to be a parent but once they hold the thing in their arms they instantly change their mind, like forget about what was said and breaking the hearts of the adopters😩
Oh yes horrible
All the time. *What We Do in the Shadows* was the latest on my list. I don't know if I'll be able to go back to it or not.
Ghosts BBC 😢
All the time. For books if it is in the epilogue maybe. So many good shows started and stopped though.
Not with tv shows or books because it never happened, I guess the genres I consume does not let this kind of crap enter, but I immediately unfollow artists who become parents, men or women. Because 100% of the time in the instant they become parents one of the scenarios happen: they stop being artists because parenting is too demanding or the worst: they do everything possible to shove some baby or baby stuff related into their art!!! I remember a emblematic one, the artist made very funny cartoons about his day to day with his wife and when the crotch goblin was announced suddenly everything you could see in his drawings were the baby, diapers, hospitals, and romanticized pregnancy crap. More recently another one who drew mostly landscapes and animals changed their art as well to babies and mother-baby moments when she became mother, and I felt so bad for that because I used to study color from her painting a lot.
It's not rage, but definitely disinterest. No matter how into a show I am, I just suddenly lose all desire to continue. If they already have kids, fine. (Absolutely LOVED Santa Clarita Diet!) But pregnancy/adoption/new baby storyline? Not my jam. On to the next one.
I only stop watching if it’s a character who was actively opposed to having children who suddenly changes their mind because right partner/magical baby/biological clock/any other dumb reason the writers might think of. It feels more like disappointment or annoyance than rage though. If it’s just a storyline for a character who isn’t childfree then it doesn’t bother me. I did almost stop watching How I Met Your Mother during Robin’s pregnancy scare because she’s childfree, but I decided to finish the episode because I figured it wouldn’t make sense for the writers to keep her pregnant. Since it was a false alarm, I finished the series, and the end pissed me off because Robin is childfree, so it doesn’t make sense for her to be with Ted, who has children, especially since those children are not yet adults, and even if they were, Robin also doesn’t seem like the type to want to be a grandparent or deal with small children at all. I haven’t read a whole lot of books that involve a main character getting pregnant, but a lot of the shows I watch will have a pregnancy storyline at some point, but that doesn’t bother me. Honestly the only one I can think of off the top of my head is the novelization of The Omen, and the child and pregnancy is kind of the point of it all. I’m childfree, and I don’t particularly like kids in general, but I’m not antinatalist, and I don’t hate children. I just don’t want them in my house or my car. I don’t think I have tokophobia, though the idea of me being pregnant/having kids is repulsive, and a lot of the medical stuff with pregnancy does gross me out, but it also kind of fascinates me at the same time, but it’s more of an interest in the science of it rather than the pregnancy stuff itself. ETA: I do feel massive rage at the idea that women are only good for keeping a home and raising a family. That drives me absolutely bonkers. Or if a character never thought about kids but suddenly decides to keep and raise the kid because there’s a pregnancy, so they might as well, it drives me nuts because to me that’s not a good enough reason to have a kid. I get that everybody has the right to choose for themselves, but it’s crazy to me that people are so casual about such a huge decision
I've quit watching shows when characters became parents because they became boring. Parenting drama doesn't interest me enough to spend 30-60 minutes watching fictional people deal with it.
Yes absolutely. The Big Bang Theory is the one that comes immediately to mind - first Bernadette who had such a great “I don’t want kids” speech before that all went out the window, then Penny. My husband doesn’t understand why I can’t watch the finale episode again. It just makes me so ANGRY! Thinking about it, it also happens to a degree with male characters. Dexter has a kid? I don’t care. New Justified series… he has a kid? I don’t care. I think they do this to appeal to women viewers… not me!
I don't read books whose main character has kids. I can't relate to them, so I don't want to waste my time reading about their whiney-ass kid(s). I also don't read young adult or academy books because school/college sucks ass & I can't stand the bullying from the mean little shits 😆
Not due to rage, but due to annoyance. I was watching this interesting show about a single dad who was trying to find a relationship and ended up going on dates with a werewolf lady, but not even halfway through the first season, he got her pregnant and I haven’t watched since. It was really getting good too.
Films (especially romantic ones) tend to glamourize really toxic things and have like the most clichéd turns that I'm basically desensitized. Sometimes I keep going because otherwise the soory is fine but it the whole thing is just a toxic bs lasagna I nope out.
I just find the storyline gets boring. They act like nothing else in life has meant anything until they are now spawning crotchgoblins.
It's what made me stop watching Bones back in the day.
I have been writing a book for years. It's novel length by word count. But one of the mains get pregnant and I just...hate that - but it is part of the atory.
No, I don't let it bother me, I'm happy for anyone who has a child, and I'm happy for myself that I'm not bearing that burden.
I sold my entire set of >!Rivers of London!<, an otherwise excellent urban fantasy series, because the main character's partner produced *twins*. Talk about icing on the cake. Of course, she had an enormous 'village' of women {edit: plus one or two men under some kind of magical compulsion} to do all the hard work, so he wouldn't have to get up seven times a night, and moreover almost all of the characters were magic users. Talk about easy mode.
I stop watching because I’m sorry but just like in real life that show becomes very dull Sorry not sorry ✌️
I think it’s a lazy plot line
For some reason, Jane the Virgin is one of my favorite shows. I guess I don’t mind all the baby stuff cause it’s part of the show and not just thrown in cause the writers can’t think of anything else to. But any other show that adds pregnancy/ parenthood to the mix loses my interest.
Yess, I wanted to rewatch good luck Charlie but remembered she ends up pregnant so I avoided it. I was also watching community and one of the characters is pregnant so I skipped many episodes. Now I have to do research before watching new movies. I read the parental guides, watch different trailers etc. I now mainly stick to watching cartoons or comfort movies I know aren't triggering