Joy Bryant may have played the role of a mother on the NBC series, Parenthood, but the actress said she has no intention of letting art imitate her real life.
Bryant penned an essay on Lenny Letter about how bothered she is by people telling her she needs to have children.
The 41-year-old actress says people’s inquisitive nature into the state of her unoccupied womb is not only impolite but it’s something she’s tired of addressing.
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“I know people don’t mean any harm, but this really shouldn’t be an issue at all, because what I choose to do or not do with my womb should be of no concern to anyone but my husband,” she writes. “While he would like to have kids, he loves and respects me enough to understand and accept my decision: that I don’t want to be a mother, that I don’t want to have children, that I don’t have the need to breed.”
The empty compliments of “but you’ll have beautiful children” and “but you’ll be such a good mother,” she says aren’t much of a form of flattery but more of an insinuation that all the greatest thing she can contribute to the world is offspring.
“So I should have kids just because they would possibly be beautiful (and, let’s not forget, smart and athletic)? I should commit to one of the toughest jobs in the world, all for the sake of populating the planet with a super-human specimen of good breeding? No, thanks. I’m good.”
To read Bryant’s full essay, visit Lenny Letter.
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