#MicroblogMondays: More Jennifer Aniston, plus various odds & ends

• The shockwaves from Jennifer Aniston's groundbreaking (and very brave) interview with Allure continue to ripple through the infertility and childless-not-by-choice communities.  Here's a roundup of some of the blog posts, opinion pieces and media clips I've run across in the aftermath to date:  
• I was lucky enough to catch a post by Jody Day on Thursday morning (Nov. 10th, on the private Gateway/Lighthouse Women community) that she would be talking about this on BBC World at 4:45 p.m. London time -- which was 11:45 a.m. in Toronto, and just 10 minutes later!  So I managed to watch Jody's brief segment, live :)  -- if there is a video clip available, I will post the link later! The interviewer actually asked some intelligent questions, and Jody managed to cram in a lot of good information and bust a few myths within the very few minutes allotted... well done!!  
• It was also discussed on a BBC radio program -- the segment starts around 1:05 into the broadcast, and goes for a full half hour! It will be available online for about a month. 
• "Jennifer Aniston is Officially One of Us!"  (Pamela, Silent Sorority) 
• "One of Us: Phoenix Rising" (Infertile Phoenix) 
• "So Grateful for Representation" (Jess, Finding a Different Path) 
• "The Jennifer Aniston Interview" (Melissa, Stirrup Queens) 
• "The one about Jennifer Aniston (and the John Lewis advert)" (Berenice Howard-Smith, Medium) 
•  "How Jennifer Aniston’s Devastating Revelation Is a Lesson to Us All:  Can we please stop asking this damn question!" (Ali Hall, Medium)
• Katie Couric shared it on Twitter!!
• "How Jennifer Aniston’s fertility became everyone’s obsession" (Zoe Williams, The Guardian) 
• "Thank you, Jennifer Aniston, for telling the truth about IVF" (Jessica Hepburn, The Telegraph -- registration required) 
• "I’m glad Jennifer Aniston has spoken out about unsuccessful IVF. I’ve been through it too" (Kat Brown, The Times). Sample passage: 

It isn’t fashionable or sexy to talk about the slog of infertility without a happy ending — too miserable, too depressing. I can think of many stars of Aniston’s age who have instead had a child by a surrogate or showed off a “miracle baby” in their later years, such as Naomi Campbell at 50. Yet for people who, like me, go through IVF without success, the grief can feel utterly terrifying and unmooring. As can the feeling that you’re the only one who has failed.

• Jess at Finding a Different Path had an article published on Insider.com!  Go read it: "After years of trying to have a baby, I consider myself 'childless not by choice.' "
• A thoughtful article about pronatalism and "population alarmism," flagged by Jody Day:  "Dismissal of “Population Alarmism” is Rooted in Pronatalist Ideology" by Nandita Bajaj, Executive Director of Population Balance. Sample passage [emphasis mine]: 

...social and institutional pressures that would force more childbearing are far stronger today than any impetus for family planning or concerns about population growth. Pronatalism is at the heart of unchecked population growth, which is occurring on the backs of those with the least personal or reproductive autonomy, who are most vulnerable to coercion.

In the past, reprehensible abuses such as forced sterilizations and other human rights violations were committed in the name of population control. But today, coercive pronatalism is the analogous threat. It’s a more prevalent, pervasive, and equally egregious form of population and reproductive control. It’s just being used toward the opposite end.

• There is a growing clamour from the medical community in Ontario -- currently swamped by the triple storm of covid, flu and RSV (three times the usual number of cases for this time of year) -- to reinstate mask mandates. The Chief Medical Officer of Health is supposed to be making an announcement today (Monday). The word is that he will NOT be reintroducing mandates -- but he is expected to "recommend" that people mask up voluntarily. Like, that's worked SO well to date??  Un-frickin'-believable... :p  
• On that note... ummm.... confession time!  Last night -- as I mentioned here, under "Worrying" -- we went to a party celebrating dh's cousin (and godson)'s wedding (which took place in August 2021, but was restricted to immediate family only because of ongoing covid concerns), and the couple's baby, due in February. Dh's aunts' recent funerals aside, it was the first indoor gathering of this size we've attended since before covid.  
• UNlike the funerals, nobody was wearing a mask... including... ummm... me. (Gulp.) I had some in my purse -- but I did not put one on. For one thing -- I'll admit -- there's that reluctance to stand out in the crowd and be "that person" -- even when you know it's the right/wise thing to do. :p  For another, I knew all of these people, and I did trust that most (not all, but most) of them were vaccinated, and would stay home if they weren't feeling well (and some actually did just that). (After all, the "bride" is six months pregnant...!) Also -- we spent a lot of our time eating and drinking ;)  (and the food was great, btw...!). 
• One person who probably should have stayed home but didn't: SIL (!), who was hoarse, losing her voice and showing other symptoms of an oncoming cold.  She came in our car with us, and BIL went with Older Nephew and helped him navigate. She did take a covid test before we left, which was negative (although I know she could still get a positive result later).  
• The party was held in the (fairly large) party room of the groom's mother's condo building, with about 40-50 people (maximum capacity 60) -- all from the groom's family, and the vast majority from the side of his family he shares with dh (his dad & dh's mom were siblings). It was good to see everyone after so long (and for a much happier reason than a funeral...!). 
• Younger Nephew & his pregnant wife, both very covid-cautious, did not attend. But Older Nephew & his wife did, and they brought Little Great-Nephew, who had a blast and stole the show (sorry, bride & groom...!).  Only a few of the family had actually seen LGN yet, and most of the few who had hadn't seen him since he was an infant, just before covid hit.
• I guess we'll find out within a few days whether we dodged a bullet or...?  :(   (I can't help but feel that, OF COURSE, it would be just my luck to get covid the first/one time in more than 2 & 1/2 years that I venture out into a big social gathering with a lot of people without putting on a mask...!)(while others go their merry way for months on end, maskless, without incurring any penalties)(yet??).   
• I have virtually NO interest in football... EXCEPT at this time of year. No NFL or American college football for me (or Canadian college football, for that matter, which attracts virtually zero interest here) -- I'm talking the Canadian Football League (CFL) and the Grey Cup, the national championship game, which will take place next weekend in Regina. The East and West division finals were this past weekend, here in Toronto and in Winnipeg. Dh & I watched both games (well, dh watched, anyway -- I glanced up from my computer now & then, lol) -- and the two winning teams who will face off for the cup are... the Toronto Argonauts and Winnipeg Blue Bombers. NOW who do I cheer for??  (The Bombers, actually, the team I grew up cheering for -- albeit I won't be heartbroken if the Argos win either...!) 
• It's bad enough that I get several friend requests from strange men every week on Instagram... but lately, I've been getting some on Goodreads too (of all places!!). Anyone else??  

 You can find more of this week's #MicroblogMondays posts here.