Stop asking women when they are going to have children

Oscar-nominated actress Margot Robbie participates in a press tour for her latest film, "Mary Queen of Scots," in which she plays the role of Queen Elizabeth I, who has never produced d & # s 39; heir. It was a matter of contention almost 500 years ago, and it seems that this is still the case today, because some journalists – especially male writers – have apparently used this plot to ask Robbie about when she will become mother.

"It really angered me," Robbie said in a recent interview with Britain's Radio Times. "How does an old guy dare to dictate what I can and can not do about motherhood or my own body?"

Robbie added that maternity issues have been a persistent and recurring research topic since her marriage with her husband, director Tom Ackerley, more than two years ago. "I got married and the first question from almost every interview is" Babies? When do you have one? "" She continued. "I am so angry that there is this social contract, you are married, have a baby, do not presume, I will do what I am going to do."

Here is a woman on fire in the entertainment industry. In recent years, Robbie has only boosted his formidable and versatile talent reputation. Her superb portrait of Tonya Harding in "Moi, Tonya" in 2017 earned her an Academy Award nomination. Now she plays a legendary queen, taking over her role in the sequel to "Suicide Squad" as Harley Quinn, committed to playing Barbie in a live film, and will play alongside Leonardo DiCaprio and Brad Pitt in the last Quentin Tarantino's project. There is a lot of professional material to discuss with Robbie; ask when she will become a mother is badist, intrusive and lazy.

When I described Samantha Bee last year, her leadership team made up of majority women told me that one of the first questions that we always ask Bee during the interviews is how she balances her motherhood with her work (she is a mother of three). Questions like this – to which Robbie, Bee and many other famous women, not to mention women who are not famous, are systematically submissive – speak both of the double standard around women and motherhood (he is very rare that men ask themselves these questions, and when they are, it is a new one) and on the badumption that the body of women and the choices they make are in the public domain. It also reinforces the idea that women are not complete until they have children, and if they do, all other facets of their lives automatically come after their motherhood. It's a disabling dynamic.

Even if millennial women choose to have children later or later, if at all, it is still widely accepted that all women will have children. finallyespecially when they get married, as Robbie pointed out, and that is only then that true femininity is open. It's a standard that relegates so many marginalized people, including infertile, disabled, transgender women or who choose a different path.

It is also a private and sensitive affair. One would think that with the plethora of renowned women such as Michelle Obama, Gabrielle Union and Serena Williams sharing their struggles with infertility or the complications of pregnancy, reporters would think twice before asking a stranger if she was pregnant. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, about 10% of women, or 6.1 million people in the United States, have difficulty getting or remaining pregnant. Given the aforementioned standards for women, this is a subject that can be extremely painful and stigmatized.

Again, this highlights an even bigger problem that women face even today: men, including journalists and politicians, are not required to have a basic understanding of the complex and unique functioning of their bodies, nor of the medical challenges to which we are vulnerable. And yet, all too often, they believe that they deserve unhindered access to our reproductive plans, or worse, to develop policies that make those decisions for us.

Robbie has responded in part to the inequality that she has experienced in her industry by creating a production company with her husband, Lucky Chap Productions. "I did not see many scenarios where I wanted to play the female role. I've always wanted to play the male role, "she told Radio Times," Women's roles are still a catalyst for male history, and this is not satisfactory. "

The #MeToo movement has helped to shed light on badism in the entertainment industry, and women are asking Hollywood to be more inventive in its stories – to portray women as human beings in their own right. It is disappointing that once off the screen, they are always asked the same tired questions – not to mention intrusive and potentially stigmatizing questions.