More anti-abortion beliefs that women are superficial creatures who have abortions for superficial reasons.
Wait now, just because something feels yucky (and this does, WAY yucky) doesn’t mean we should dismiss it out of hand. There are plenty of important scientific discoveries that have come about because someone asked a yucky question.
What if, in Hypothetical Land, the OP’s theory were to bear out? It’d be one more reason to increase funding for children’s nutrition and exercise classes, one more reason not to cut gym classes, one more reason to build good parks and just generally fight childhood obesity - since many (not all, I’m one of the exceptions) obese adults were obese children. Perhaps the anti-choice crowd would like to fund my child’s gym classes or build a new rec center in my neighborhood so my daughter doesn’t get fat and kill her baby.
While I am suspicious of the OP’s motives (mostly because he chose GD, not GQ to post in), he does ask a question: is there any research to support this hypothesis? The answer, to the best of my knowledge, is “No.” But maybe someone else has a different answer. And maybe the answer is “No, but there should be some research done, let me see if I can get a grant for this.”
I don’t think he’s entirely out in left field, actually, but I’d look for a self-esteem issue (the real self-esteem that comes from tackling and succeeding at real challenges, not the fake “everybody wins” type) as the root of the issue, not BMI. But that’s my hypothetical, and no more outrageous than the fat one, just more culturally acceptable right now.
Do you want us to just tell you if we are very hideous or exceptionally beautiful, or are you going to need pics?
Lacking a rock to stuff it under, no.
I do not see any way to provide quantities (or even definitions) of attractive vs unattractive women, how often they get inadvertantly pregnant, or how often such persons would resort to abortion to terminate a pregnancy. It would be pretty difficult to categorize any of the imagined arguments in support of imagined facts to be categorized as a debate.
Off to IMHO (with apologies to the Mods, there).
[/Moderator ]
Ok here’s some anecdotal evidence for you:
I have a cousin who is smokin’ hot, thin, blonde, cute to the nines. One would not consider her “white trash” but she is poor as hell. She got pregnant, has a baby without a dad, even though it is the least economically responsible thing she could ever do.
Then there’s me, who qualifies as “ugly fat chick” and even though I could not say that I long for the day when I could have an abortion and take many measures to keep myself from becoming pregnant (yes, I do have sex regularly even though appearance wouldn’t lead you to believe so) - I would have an abortion in a heartbeat because there’s no way I want a baby.
I could not think of any reason having to do with “letting the world know you have had sex” as a consideration for either of us being for or against personally getting an abortion.
In this day of artifical insemnation, how does getting pregnant “let the world know you had sex?” My sister’s partner has been pregnant twice, and she’s still (technically) a virgin.
DianaG, I really hope you’re whooshing me.
I think the only way it would work would be on an unconscious level.
Unfortunately, Dorian Gray, that means the only way someone could come up with an answer other than “I don’t know” is to ignore the stated reasons a woman gives for making her decision and guessing at some deeper, “real” reason. Once you hit the age of 20, that’s supposed to cease being a fun pastime.
We really, really shouldn’t need to ruin perfectly scathing sarcasm with smilies.
[ As Moderator ]
I apologize to Dorian Gray for the cheap shots I took at the thread.
Such comments are not appropriate for a simple thread move.
Tom~
Dorian Gray, clearly we need empirical research. Go impregnate as many fat, ugly chicks as you can find. I’ll work the other side, and we’ll compare the results.
Sailboat
I had an abortion when I was 18. At the time, I considered myself a fat, ugly, hideous freak of nature(I’m not. I know that now, but I spent a lot of my adolescence being told over and over that I was “fat, ugly, lazy and stupid”. Always those words, always in that order, day after day.)
I ultimitely made my decision based on my circumstances, NOT my appearance.
I DID however, think that if I were to have a baby, it would no doubt be ugly and hideous like me(I thought), and that I’d feel awful for bringing another ugly human being into the world to be laughed at and humiliated. Also, I felt undesirable as it was, and to have a baby would make me triply undesirable(ugly me+child+the child would be ugly).
Use this information in any way you see fit, unless you plan on berating me for the choice I made. I had a choice. I chose abortion. I don’t regret it.
I had heard the phrase “fuck trophies” as an idiom for children and have yet to have a clear understanding of when to use it. Thanks to the OP, I now know what a fuck trophy is.
Sgt Schwartz
Hey, you never know around here!
Many of us here, including myself, would say the same.
Thank you. I actually feel more confident in my decision to submit that post, now.
Well it seems as if you made the right decision to get on the next train. I didn’t ask this question for the sake of setting up a thread to go down in flames. I asked it because over the course of several years i have known a lot of overweight/unattractive females and exceptionally attractive ones and if we were to assume they were both sexually active the same amount (according to pool any girl can get it whenever) then it struck me as odd that a lot of the of unattractive girls i’ve known now have children and a lot of the exceptionally attractive girls i’ve known have had abortions. So you say, well if you know so many of these girls then why not just ask them. Theres another thread going on about things that people will lie about more often, i’d say things having to do with self image (height/weight) and sexuality (how many partners/how many times have you been pregnant) were mentioned more than a couple of times. So i was hoping to get some candid anonymous responses that i wouldn’t get from someone face to face.
I’m aware that my observations do not in any way reflect what is going on in the rest of the world and thats why i was looking for more answers from a group of people that seemed equipped to provide logical answers to sometimes outrageous questions, and not just snide remarks like these.
So to the people that were sensible, mature and open enough to actually tackle the unpleasant or seemingly unrealistic topic, thanks. Your input has helped change my perspective.
Thats an interesting perspective that i never would’ve thought about, in fact my friends and i used to joke about how it seemed like the hottest girls had some of the ugliest parents.
Another good point that i didn’t consider, maybe unattractive people are worried about being alone or not finding a partner so a child would help fill that void.
Does anyone work in an abortion clinic/planned parenthood? I’d be interested to know if they’ve noticed any patterns or if they know where data is published in regards to the average weight of women who get an abortion.
Have you considered the financial angle? Many of the women you consider unattractive may be that way because they don’t have the money to spend on hair, makeup, clothes…or abortions.
I really think that while the OP brings up some interesting thoughts, there is more to the question than fat/thin. You would have to consider the age and socio-economic standing of the woman, and the education level. As to the above mentioned trophy term, I’ve seen instances where there is a lot of pressure on young kids to have babies. A co-worker’s 12 year old son was being teased by his classmates because he wasn’t trying to get some girl pregnant (I know I wrote a thread about it years ago)…it was a badge of honor for these little boys to become a baby daddy as proof of their sexual activity, so you can imagine the pressure on a girl to prove she’s desirable enough to be having sex by getting pregnant. There’s no other way to prove it, short of having people watch. But would a girl admit that she’s choosing to have a child just to prove she’s had sex? No way! But it happens every day.
And as to the comment about being puzzled why black girls score higher on self esteem…heck, I see young black girls everyday who think they are the most incredible, special, wonderful person in the world, but they don’t have or want to get marketable skills, or learn the humility needed to get along with others in the workplace. Believe you me, the next girl who sticks her head in the door of my store and shouts “Excuse me…EXCUSE ME…Y’all hiring?” thinks she is something really amazing. She’s just oozing self-esteem. And she usually has a baby in a stroller with her as she’s job hunting. So how people score themselves on self-esteem is just a total crock, and the whole self-esteem bandwagon has done nothing to prepare these girls for a world that doesn’t think they are ever so wonderful.
Hold on.
Fat = ugly and thin = pretty? Or is it overweight = unattractive and svelt = attractive? Because I was willing to give the OP the benefit of the doubt but this seems to be the premise of the thread. You see, despite my vast experience with youth in crisis, I can’t bring myself to respond to the rather interesting question of whether attractiveness (perceived or objective) has any bearing on a woman’s choice to abort or carry out an unplanned pregnancy if the only critereon for good looks is a number on a scale.