A quick dispatch from the land of bizarre internet kerfuffles: comedienne Chelsea Handler has apparently raised many a conservative hackle with a recent Twitter video called “A Day In The Life of a Childless Woman.” It’s pretty much exactly what you would expect if you’re familiar with Handler’s style of humor (one of her early books was titled Are You There, Vodka? It’s Me, Chelsea, which gives you a sense): Handler, a proudly dissipated 51-year-old single woman, celebrating the complete and utter freedom her lack of parental responsibilities grants her.
And honestly, I have no idea why people are losing their minds over such a transparent, indeed almost predictable, provocation. Chelsea Handler is a childless woman. I expect her to feel positive about that life decision because I understand human nature beyond the level of a cardboard cutout (calling the video a “cry for help,” as some have, is the laziest sort of armchair psychoanalysis), but also because this is the same schtick she has been plying for years. It is, quite literally, part of her act and her publicly constructed persona: the bawdy, martini-tippling party girl all grown up.
Is the message that it’s great to be childless a morally decrepit one? Sure, that’s obviously no way to run a society. But it’s also a joke, a rather self-deprecating one at that, and one that touches upon a genuine discontent in modern female professional life. My wife (accomplished as both a career professional and a mother) points out to me that everyone in her situation can relate to wishing they had more free time to pursue their interests, as well as feeling judged by society for the decisions they make balancing their work and family lives. So she couldn’t suppress a chuckle when Handler brags about how “the weightlessness of my existence has granted me superhuman powers . . . now it’s time for a workout, so I hit Mt. Everest for a quick climb. I invent a time machine and go back and kill Hitler! It’s amazing what you can do when you have this much free time!”
My wife and I wouldn’t trade what we have for the world. But one can relate.