There's gathering evidence that society at large has an obsession with the inner workings of women's wombs. The pregnancies of the Duchess of Cambridge and Kim Kardashian have been minutely reported in the media - and, locally, every woman who's ever appeared on the telly does a photo shoot (accompanied by breathless copy) for a weekly magazine when she becomes a) pregnant and b) a mother.
This subject is explored in Does Daniel Radcliffe want children? Makes a change for a man to be asked.
"The media is obsessed with whether or not celebrities (usually female ones) are going to have children," it claims. "The message is clear: no matter how successful a woman is in her chosen profession, her ultimate purpose is to be a mother - and any deviation from this biological destiny is fascinating enough to be pored over endlessly." And, furthermore, "female celebrities are seldom spared being questioned about their fertility."
The piece says that journalists frequently ask their well-known female subjects about whether they plan to have children. "Female celebrities without children (Kylie Minogue, Cameron Diaz and Jennifer Aniston among them) are subjected to are-they-aren't-they pregnancy stories," says The Telegraph. Evidently Oprah Winfrey and Helen Mirren are often quizzed about their childfree status. But some celebrities, specifically Julianne Moore and Zooey Deschanel, are fighting back and questioning this overzealous concern for what might or might not being going on in the privacy of famous people's uteri.
This interest in breeding habits isn't confined to celebrities. The ordinary woman in the street is frequently subjected to questions from family, friends, acquaintances and even strangers about when she plans to have children or whether she plans to have more children.
