Unmarried nonwhite woman’s crapload of babies not considered “little gifts from God”
By contributing hater, Kenny Darter.
“What color is she?”
White ladies have a bunch of kids and get TV shows. A brown woman pumps out eight babies and gets scorn – and maybe a few high-profile interviews.
California woman Nadya Suleman-Guiterrez birthed octuplets late last month after having six kids earlier this decade – all through in vitro fertilization. Having 14 kids isn’t the soundest family planning – throw diaper subsidies into the stimulus package, Barack! – but we’ve seen this before, and we’ve seen a celebration, not a simultaneous national gag reflex.
The 2003 remake, “Cheaper by the Dozen” and its 2005 sequel track the craziness and hilarity of a couple with 12 quirky, good-looking kids. Audiences saw that it was tough managing a small army of mouths to feed, but in the end, it’s all just really quite funny and heart warming.
Enormous (white) families are drop-dead hilarious.
“John & Kate Plus Eight” on TLC has tracked the trials of the Gosselin family as they manage their eight little offspring. They somehow manage, and viewers send money.
Don’t worry, they’ll pay their way via adorableness
Another TLC show based on overactive ovaries and warrior sperm is “Seventeen Kids and Counting,” a reality program about Michelle and Jim Bob – yes, Jim Bob – Duggar, who have 18 children.
The litter that single-handedly killed a vagina
Every episode is a new way of praising the family for its relationships and unflappable faith.
Standing ovation for the Duggars!
Then Suleman, whose mother is Hispanic and whose father is Arab, goes and has eight kids all at once. People freak. Someone asks me, “What color is she?” Unsure how to respond, I tell him she’s Hispanic. He nods his head in disapproval and makes a tisk, tisk sound.
Let’s not forget the sexism – how can a woman raise that many kids without a bread winner, without a brawny man to bring home the bacon? And lots of it.
I hear he’s available.
In an interview on NBC’s “Today Show,” Suleman admitted having a platoon of babies can be perceived as “selfish,” but I’ve never hear anyone call the Duggars selfish or irresponsible. The sentiment seems to be the Duggars and their ilk might be freak shows, but damn it, they’re lovable, respectable freak shows.
Columnists and talking heads have taken their shots at Suleman, too. Phyllis Chesler called Suleman’s baby-bearing “a Frankenstinian moment.”
Fertility doctor Dr. Frankenstein reading at a local school
“It is grotesque, a freak Circus Act,” Chesler writes, pointing out that “Osama bin Laden’s father had 57 children.” Hear that, TLC? A pilot of “Suleman and bin Laden Plus 71” for spring sweeps? Ratings gold.
The Daily Mail, a British paper, quoted a perturbed doctor calling Suleman’s pregnancy a “medical disaster.” Another baby guru said the births were “clearly not a medical triumph.” I know the white families referenced above didn’t have octuplets, but Suleman having 14 kids to raise is cast in an unwaveringly negative light when compared to the predominately Anglo-Saxon baby makers starring in their own shows.
If you’re going to hate on families with enough kids to run Halliburton, hate equally. It shouldn’t matter what “color” the baby machine is or whether she’s hitched.
Editor’s note: Upon further examination — a special thanks to all you commenters — Suleman is half Hispanic and half Arab. The point is that she’s not white. Or married. Her deviation from the husband-and-two-kid norm has brought unprecedented criticism.
Suleman & Bin Laden + 71 is officially your best idea since NSA wiretapping.
Call me awful, but when I first heard about this I assumed the woman would be white. Because this seemed like the sort of stunt some stupid trailer-trash [white] chick would pull.* But I just get irritated at this whole IVF multiple-birth thing anyway. It is NOT a gift from God when you have more hormones than a high school body injected into your body, and even so, historical precedent suggests God intended us to have children, not litters.
*I’m half-Mexican, half-Caucasian, so that means I’m allowed to call her an idiot either way, right?
Now are you sure she’s Hispanic? Her name sounds very Arabic-ish. I also read that her dad was Iraqi…not that I want to claim her as one of my own or anything, lol.
Nadya Suleman went on workers compensation disability back in 1999 (at age 23) due to a work-related back injury (in which she filed 2 different workers compensation claims, one of which netted her $168,000). For the past 10 years though she’s been receiving disability payments and unable to work, she’s been able to undergo several IVF treatments and have 14 children. Since disability payments generally aren’t counted as income (or taxed), she’s also likely been able to receive welfare for each of her 6 children.
This woman has been living off the system for most of her adult life and will continue to do so at taxpayer’s expense.
This article is off in that the reason people are not supporting this woman is NOT cause of her race, it is cause she has NO means of supporting her kids. The other couples own homes and had jobs. The one with 18 kids are debt free. I think whoever wrote this article wants to meake it all about race when that is not really the reason. This lady just did not consider how she was going to raise her kids and fullfill all of their needs. She yet has to finish school and how can she do that with so many kids?
I don’t know, I’m pretty sure, I read about the stupidity of the Duggar family when their latest addition was born. Wait, there’s actually reality shows about these families? Is it just one hour of changing diapers and feeding kids? Compelling tv, that! And I don’t care how rich or debt free anyone is, there is never any need to have 18 children of your own!
WOW, WOW, WOW…
This has nothing to do with race. It’s about holding someone accountable for poor decisions.
She’s not Latino, she’s of Iraqi decent. Not that that makes her suddenly immune to racial hatred, but the hatred for this woman is because she’s a selfish nutter butter, not because of her race.
This woman is a classic pathological naccicist and psychopath. Her near unblinking conversation with Ann Curry gave me the ick-willies!
On “Today,” she said she had the babies because she had the embryos, they were hers and she had the right to USE them. That is what she is doing with her children.. . . bending their existence in service to her wants and needs.
This woman neither has nor desires a real family — mother, father and children reared in a nuturing home. Please reconsider the make-believe cinema comparisons (it’s entertainment) and the real-life examples — at least there is a mom and dad there!
This woman is a unique, frightening category of one. Her IVF physician should go to the local courthouse and change his or her name to Dr. Frankenstein.
I’m wondering if people read the entire original post before responding. In pointing out the media’s hypocrisy on this, you are correct. The Duggars and any other family (however you define “family”) that has that many children, no matter what race, color or creed, are selfish, socially irresponsible jerks and the people who send them money are idiots (especially these television networks). That is just as much NOT raising your kids on your own as abusing welfare. I have no problem with people needing help, but there are plenty of people taking advantage, who just keep popping kids out and thinking, hey, I never have to work, just keep taking those gov’t checks and more kids=more money. Instead of the constant “I want” kids these people need to think SHOULD I have kids? The media needs to stop giving them so much attention and definitely to stop presenting them as admirable.
The main reasons I’ve been hating on this lady are:
1) She’s nuts.
2) She’s selfish. She seems to think babies are like pets or something.
3) Did I mention she’s a nutbar? Nuttier than a fruitcake? Looney tunes? Yeah, she’s all that.
She is half Iraqi and half Ukrainian. Her mother who was featured in that Radar video id very clearly white. It is her ex-husband who was hispanic. Remember, as good as an idea or theory may be when you have it, it’s nothing without proof. Seems you didn’t want facts to get in the way of a good scoop, though.
Now if you want to focus on the sexism of the single mother guilt trip – THAT might be a good place to start.
The issue here is the fertility clinic. They appear to have made a major misstep in the situation. It is usually SOP to do this type of specific procedure with older women. With regards to this woman herself and her children, HOW IS IT ANY OF YOUR GODDAMN BUSINESS?
Seriously folks, get lives, instead of coming off like a bunch of old gossips.
@Steve
Sorry, but overpopulation is everyone’s issue. Why do you need a license to drive a car but anyone can pump out 8 or (n+1) kids? And land TV interviews afterward? And smile as checks roll in from idiot donors? AND from the gov’t?! WTF?!
BTW I never looked at her as anything but white, as much from the precedence of the media hyped overbrooders before her as anything else. Pictures did not imply any ethnicity to me. Knowing she is half Iraqi does nothing to diminish my distaste for her.
That said, it is impossible for her race to not be an issue in America, so this article does the culture a service by highlighting that truth. Though I think discrimination of her as a single female would be a more fruitful avenue to investigate.
But she’s still an idiot, just like anyone having this many kids in America. (Sorry Mormons). She’s not running a farm or dealing with high mortality rates, why does she need this many kids? She’s not even doing it to evangelize some backward and racist religion (sorry Mormons), an impulse I may hate but could at least sort of understand…
And in case you didn’t know, she launched a website for her family today. The only two things you can do on the site are donate via mastercard, visa, etc. or leave a comment.http://www.thenadyasulemanfamily.com/ I think people’s distaste for this woman are perhaps because they could see through her motivations.
Actually SlowRoll.. Steve is right on point. We’ve had families who have had 7 kids in the past. That one about 10 years ago where you had a white family in Iowa and an African family in Texas.. the white family got People magazine covers and Oprah Winfrey episodes and more contributions than they could count. The Africans got blurbs.. the help did come later, but it was unquestionable which was the blessed event and which was just more mouths to feed. There is no question that, had this birth been rolled out with media blitz planned pre-birth, the hatred and death threats would have been vastly more well suppressed. That pictures of the Mom were not seen for days allowed the negative spin on the story to build and now the woman is in hiding. Wow.. those 14 kids and disability and food stamps and medical care will just collapse our economy. Meanwhile we can’t even name the CEO’s of Countrywide or Ameriquest who have helped BILLIONS disappear into thin air.
But Steve.. the concept of “overpopulation” is an iffy one. Yes.. there are 3 BILLION people in this world who are considered “extra”. They don’t count.. they live on 2 bucks a day if that. Surely if people just STOPPED having children… then folks in Sri Lanka would become rich. It just doesn’t work that way, Steve. You join the rest of the Malthusians and Neo-Malthusians in suggesting that there is just NO MORE ROOM at the inn.. meanwhile every American teen is guaranteed his/her own XBox, iPod, and all the denim they can stretch.
We’re SO overpopulated that China, Japan, Italy, and England are considered aging and declining societies that will have trouble maintaining their economic edge over the next decades. We’re SO overpopulated that Mexico alone can somehow lose 12,000,000 of its citizens because Americans somehow forgot how to mow it’s own lawn and work in its own fast food restaurants. By this logic.. no one in Los Angeles need ever have a child again because across town.. BECAUSE of REAL social problems like racism, ghettoization, and economic inequality.. blacks and hispanics live on a fraction of the resources of those living it up in the Hollywood Hills and the San Fernando Valley. It’s not the POPULATION that is over.. it’s the distribution of resources towards health care, education, and housing that would turn all of our citizens into assets to our society instead of a drag! Now that billionaire bankers have wiped out TRILLIONS of dollars of wealth.. maybe they too can be seen as a problem and all of the resources they suck up will be taken away from them by an righteously angry american populace.
However, Nadya Suleman, troubled and out of touch she may be, should not be “disdained” “decried” “diagnosed” or even pitied or hated. She’s just another one with a lot of mouths to feed and a poor plan. The Republic will survive and however it is done.. those mouths are to be fed, those lives are to be valued, and this woman is to be helped. That’s why THIS is a great society and why every generation of Americans does better than the one before. Nadya Suleman shouldn’t have had more kids. Perhaps even after she was pregnant she sensibly might have chosen abortion. Beyond that though.. it is her choice. And even if we don’t like that she’s going to place a burden on society.. we put the humanity of all concerned before any concern of money. That’s why those monsters threatening her and expressing hatred about the concept of a woman with children are the ones needing diagnosing. Steve is right on point.. the lives of those children considered “non-white” or not OK can be freely defined as mere burdens or issues. not as human beings who are sharing the planet with us. Just like those 3 BILLION we don’t give a **** about because they’re not one of us.
Hmm, my point is that anyone engaging in having this many kids is an idiot.
Racism is very definitely being levelled at this woman, because the MSM operates on racist principles and exploits racism at every turn. HOWEVER, sexism is probably a greater factor in all this analysis.
That said, I don’t give a shit if she has a husband or a million dollars to feed these kids. She is still an idiot. I’m glad her kids weren’t bred for religious evangelism, but she definitely makes the case for welfare harder with this completely irresponsible breeding. I am a socialist who definitely believes that everyone should be cared for. To compliment that, however, we need to stop letting everyone have as many babies as they want. You act like these 14 mouths don’t add much drag to the system, but the system sucks right now and offers very little support as it is. They are stressing an overstressed system _for no reason other than the mom wanted 8 more playthings_. Your point of maybe she should have gotten an abortion is ridiculous: she paid to have those embryos fertilized and inserted. This was not an accident.
I appreciate and agree with the points you make about what really drains the economy, but please do not pretend that letting any unemployed person have 14 kids makes no difference to the economy. Everything is a goddamn shambles, we don’t need this crap. And that goes double for dumbass white folks doing this shit.
“And that goes double for dumbass white folks doing this shit.”
I should amend that, because what I really mean is it goes double for dumbass people breeding for _religious reasons._ I covered many of them with “dumbass white folks,” sure, but not all of them. (My inspiration was Mrmnsm, if you care.) I really don’t care what color you are, unless your kids are continuously dying or there is too much work and too few hands, society should not be condoning you having 14 kids, let alone celebrating you (if white) or sending you welfare checks for each one. Yeah, you should get the welfare if you need it, but your ass should be on community service or something if you can’t pay the taxes, which should be on some penalizing type shit that compounds with each kid you have past three.
Uhm – the Jon and Kate Plus 8 kids are mixed race. Jon obviously has Asian heritage – as do the kids. The picture you posted of the fair haired babies – total bunk. Why don’t you do a bit more fact checking before posting?
It’s not because the woman is hispanic/arabic. Which I honestly didn’t know until reading your post, even after watching the Today Show interview…because she’s had some facial work done. Her post-work features were much more ethnically identifying.
The real issue: she’s a single woman, on disability and welfare, living with her parents…and using IVF to have all her children. She didn’t have a couple un-planned pregnancies. She specifically planned to have all these children and is now looking at the world with her hand out.
Many of the families celebrated on television are celebrated because there is a mother AND a father present. At least TWO people, one to manage the children, and the other to bring home the bacon.
And when it comes to these other large families, people are willing to VOLUNTEER their charity, rather than have it come at 3 million dollar expense to tax-payers. There’s a difference between offering charity because you are compelled, and having it forcibly removed from your paycheck because this woman inherited $100,000 and decided to blow it up her vagina.
She cannot financially afford to care for these children. Sure, she intends to enroll in Grad school soon – but unless she’s aiming to become a medical doctor, there is no way she can afford the hefty estimated $1.5 million it will take to get all 14 kids through to age 17. Here’s where I got that number: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/29157637/
That’s not even factoring in their college tuition.
Personally – I wish all people (white, black, brown, whatever) would stop having 14 kids. I wish people having these numbers of kids were not given celebrity status, it perpetuates a desire in weirdos like Nadya to procreate far beyond her capacity to care for these children.
And she knows it – her attitude on the interview was “it’s going to take a village to raise my children.” So, I guess you want to be the first villager to lend a hand?
Why does race place an issue here?
Because even if she had the means to support 14 children, her status as being anything but white would still have an effect on her qualifications of being a mother. I think the very real media and societal interpretation of large quantities of children is that when they’re white, it’s a blessing. When they’re anything but, they’re just more mouths to feed. Nadya Suleman’s case is an extreme one but I think what the article is trying to point out here is that honestly, even if these children were conceived naturally, she would still be deemed irresponsible. I think she is, but I also think that other families should be called out on it too.
I’m sorry, but I have yet to be convinced that the fact that a family like the Duggars are shown in a positive light is because they are white, outwardly Christian, and married. Seriously, if this was a show about a married black couple with 18 kids could you imagine the types of conversation that would follow?
I SUPPORT NADYA. It’s none of the publics business. Leave the poor woman alone. Unless of course she can get her own tv show, and then support her! Haha. I know several families with more children than this. Get over it!
It’s strange. If her race isn’t the issue I wonder why I heard so many white people asking about what it was before it was common knowledge.
OK, my disdain for this woman has nothing to do with her race (which I figured was white until you corrected this idea) or sexism- I know plenty of great single moms and families that would be better off if mom were single. It has everything to do with the NUMBER OF CHILDREN SHE HAD, and THE CIRCUMSTANCES UNDERWHICH SHE HAD THEM. They were all IVF- expensive- all were while she was unemployed, all while she was collecting government aid, and seriously- 14?! She’s irresponsible and selfish. The world *is* over populated whether you want to believe it or not, and that fact is compounded by the disparity in wealth, but still over populated. People need to get over it and stop breeding so much!
For the record, I also hate the Duggars and Jon&Kate. So there.
To be honest, I don’t think this has anything to do with race. If you look at all the coverage that has been done on the octuplets mom, she is quite obviously a nut job who has no clue what it takes to raise 14 children on her own, many of whom will probably have special needs. As for John and Kate, and the Duggers, at least they take care of their kids. How can an unemployed single mother do the same? And if you are going to point out race, what about the first family that had octuplets (7 survived)? They were black and got tons of donations, including a 5000 square foot house, and they didn’t get any of the bad press this women is getting.
On a side note, there are plenty of people that can’t stand John and Kate and the Duggers. Just look online. There are many, many sites that are calling them out as the freak shows they are. Especially the Duggers, who are just a little too culty for me. There are even a lot of people that are boycotting the John and Kate show because of how hypocritical they are; making all this money from their shows/books/handouts, and are still going around to people who have much less than them with their hands out.
I am with you all the way.. If she had a husband no one would say crap ans she would be offered a million + just to do a TLC special . But because she is single it is a huge deal. Do these people think John and Kate paid for everything and never got help from the state or any where . come on people get over it and let her raise her kids.. We may not raise our children the same as her but who is to say just because she has so many children she cant do it. My grandmother had 14 children and all of her 14 are very very well off and support their children and grand children. All of which have graduated from college and are gainfully employed. So don’t knock her till you see her fail. She may not.