childfree

[Jonathan Lighter]

CVs are supposed to be pithy. "Childfree," however, might sound a little
too new and aggressive for some employers.  Even "Childless by choice"
sounds more aggressive than a simple "No children."

But a biographical article isn't supposed to be quite as pithy as a CV.

JL


On Mon, Feb 3, 2014 at 4:01 PM, Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at yale.edu>wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at YALE.EDU>
> Subject:      Re: childfree
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> 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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> >>>
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> >>>
> >>
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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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