Skip to content
quotesby

Until recently baby production was largely dependent on slave labour; as soon as women are allowed to answer the question 'Would you like to squeeze as many objects the size of a watermelon out of your body as it takes to kill you?' they generally answer 'No, thank you.' This leads to falling birthrates everywhere women are not kept enslaved and ignorant of the alternatives.

James Nicoll#30

AutonomyDemographicsFreedomWork

About this quote

What does it mean?
Women often choose not to have many children when they have the freedom to make that choice.
In plain terms
People with autonomy tend to avoid dangerous or undesirable outcomes.
What can you take from it?
Access to education and freedom influences demographic trends.

Where it applies

  • policy discussions
  • historical analysis
  • feminist theory

Putting it to work

  • analyze birthrate data
  • evaluate reproductive rights
  • study historical labor

Questions to consider

  • How much do personal choices drive population changes?
  • What alternatives exist to forced labor in production?

Another view

The quote uses hyperbolic language that may oversimplify complex biological or cultural factors.

More from James Nicoll

  1. I don't mind hidden depths but I insist that there be a surface.

    Permalink to quote #29
  2. Most of my scars are not fire-related and I no longer say 'I know what I am doing' at critical moments.

    Permalink to quote #31
  3. Ben Bova seems to work very hard at working in new discoveries into his Glum Future but alas, his future is glum and not that well written.

    Permalink to quote #28

Related quotes

  1. Schenck was supposed to be my producer but he never knew when or what I was shooting. He just turned me loose.

    Buster KeatonBuster Keaton quote #15
  2. I can never consent to being dictated to.

    John TylerJohn Tyler quote #1
  3. I could buy myself paper, a pen, a pencil and a brush and could create pictures whenever and wherever I wanted. ... That evening, in the spring of 1947, on the…

    Peter WeissPeter Weiss quote #1