childfree

[Laurence Horn]

My late colleague Ellen Prince, who had no children and was proud of it, included at the end of her CV the two lines:

Smoker
No children

She might have opted for "child-free" if she had to choose, but was at least intending to use "no children" as a less ideologically version of the same.  I've also (possibly through Ellen) encountered "childless by choice" for this, without the negative associations with "Judenfrei", which come to think of it might have been a reason for Ellen to avoid "child-free".

LH

On Feb 3, 2014, at 3:07 PM, Jonathan Lighter wrote:

> There's an interesting Gricean aspect to the Wiki quote.
>
> Ordinarily one would expect some substantive comment under a heading like
> "Personal Life." For example, Costello is married, but her husband goes
> unnamed and is mentioned only briefly under "CNN."
>
> The article appears to define her "personal life" solely on the basis of
> whether she has children. One has to assume that her apparently
> insignificant husband has no children either.
>
> Again ordinarily, one tends to assume from a newspaper-style bio that if no
> children are mentioned, the subject (or couple) has no children. In this
> case, it is the absence of children that is highlighted.
>
> Until recently, English was unable to express the idea, by one word, that a
> person, by choice and preference, has no children. To say "Costello is
> childless" would be literally true but because of the historical
> associations  of "childless," it would also sound rude, condescending, or
> pathetic. One would have to say - if one had to say anything - "Costello
> has no children." Stated baldly, even that observation seems to carry a
> negative charge.
>
> In any case, absence of children might be a peculiar fact to select as the
> *sole* relevant information in a under the rubric of "Personal Life."
> Undoubtedly it is an artifact of the wiki format: simply plugged in without
> regard to balance or context. But stated so bluntly in the biography of a
> public figure, it sounds - intentionally or not - as a deliberate plug for
> the "childfree" movement.
>
> I mean, "sounds to old people."
>
> JL
>
>
> On Mon, Feb 3, 2014 at 2:32 PM, Mark Mandel <thnidu at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
>> -----------------------
>> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>> Poster:       Mark Mandel <thnidu at GMAIL.COM>
>> Subject:      Re: childfree
>>
>> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>
>> Eh. For me, it didn't have pejorative implications. I web-know people who
>> have described themselves as child-free, with (iirc) an amplification that
>> while they are that way by personal choice because it works best for them.
>>
>> Mark
>>
>>
>> On Fri, Jan 31, 2014 at 11:00 PM, Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at yale.edu
>>> wro=
>> te:
>>
>>> And that 98% figure would have fit pretty well.  In some places, even
>>> ninety-nine and forty-four percent pure, if anyone else remembers the old
>>> Ivory Snow line=E2=80=A6
>>>
>>>
>>> LH
>>>
>>>
>>> On Jan 31, 2014, at 10:50 PM, Victor Steinbok wrote:
>>>
>>>> Certai.nly was the first thing that came to *my* mind. I started
>>>> imagining German maps circa 1942-3
>>>>
>>>>   VS-)
>>>>
>>>> On 1/30/2014 7:43 PM, Laurence Horn wrote:
>>>>> Or "Judenfrei".
>>>>>
>>>>> LH
>>>>
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>
>
>
> --
> "If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."
>
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