Fur Babies and Why Norms are not Discriminatory

Why it's important for us to promote what is normative without fear of offending

Photo by Matt Nelson on Unsplash

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Fur Babies

A few days ago I shared the following meme on social media as a part of my #noblewords series:

To be honest, at the time I knew it might be controversial because people (rightly) love their pets and most people are understandably sensitive about their family planning decisions and many are unable to have children. But the point of the meme is not that without children a woman is inadequate. Nor was my point that it’s wrong to love your dog. Instead, I was making the simple point that dogs are dogs, not children. And the choice in a marriage to have a dog and treat it as a child instead of trying to have children of your own is not just a private decision; it affects your neighbors and society at large.

The replacement of children by dogs in society is a real and growing reality as the birth rate declines to historic lows. When I visited NYC a few weeks ago I saw more dogs than children. I don’t think my experience is unique.