Dehumanizing child-free women in film and TV gives misogyny a stage

“When are you giving us grandkids?” and “You’ll change your mind,” are familiar lines heard by child-free women around the table at family dinner.

Dealing with pokey questions from relatives is one thing, but seeing misogynistic female stereotypes of purposefully child-free women on screen and in the media is another.

University of South Australia Ph.D. student Belinda Lees has dedicated the past four years to researching how screenwriters could create more nuanced and complex child-free women protagonists in biopics, after uncovering the barrage of often negative portrayals in existing media.

Lees’ research comes at a time when Australia’s birth rate has hit an all-time low, with many adults under 50 saying they’re unlikely to ever have kids, mostly because they just don’t want to.

Other reasons include the state of the world, a general nonaffinity for children, or preferring to focus on their career and interests, but it’s clear that more women are opting out of motherhood—a choice that often comes with harsh criticism.

In an article published in the Journal of Screenwriting, Lees says that the negative representation of child-free women in biopics like “Blonde” (2022), “Becoming Jane” (2007), and “A Private War” (2018) could lead to image and self-esteem issues and may exacerbate the issue of aggression against women by validating harmful societal attitudes.

As a child-free woman, Marilyn Monroe in the biographical fiction film “Blonde” is depicted as mentally unwell, obsessive, and hysterical due to the loss of her unborn children, as the film touches on difficult subjects such as abortion and grief after termination.

Lees says the dramatized and strikingly negative depiction of Monroe’s life may be accepted as fact due to the nature of the biopic genre.

“On-screen, when child-free women are portrayed negatively, it marginalizes, reduces, others, and invalidates a woman’s choice to remain child-free—which may not even be a voluntary choice,” she says.

“It’s a feedback loop where harmful depictions of child-free women in film and TV strengthen these problematic attitudes in real life, which can in turn influence aggressive behaviors towards women.

“This is partly why there’s a history of prominent female figures being criticized for their lack of children, like former Prime Minister Julia Gillard who was called “wooden” and unfit to lead due to her “deliberately barren” status.

“Filmmakers need to move away from these regressive tropes towards more complex, respectful depictions—such as Sally Wainwright’s portrayal of Anne Lister in “Gentleman Jack” (2019–2022), where her admiration of Lister’s character translates to a meaningful on-screen portrayal of one of history’s first modern lesbians.”

The attitudes of male filmmakers and writers are often less admiring, which can lead to problematic depictions just like that of Monroe in “Blonde”.

“Almost 20% of men believe that feminism should be violently resisted, and 30% hold hostile sexist views—no doubt a contributing factor to the 71 women and girls that have been killed in Australia this year,” Lees says.

“Acknowledging this devastating statistic, if it’s true that on-screen objectification of women can lead to aggressive attitudes and behaviors in men, then it could also be true that more inclusive and empowering representations may influence audiences more positively, creating a safer society for women and girls.”

Lees says the film industry needs writers and filmmakers who are committed to connecting with their child-free characters on a meaningful level, and that dehumanizing child-free women by framing them in film as selfish, hedonistic, immature, and abnormal can further the beliefs that lead to physical, verbal and sexual abuse.

“Finding an authentic link with these women and presenting them as complex, nuanced and complete people is an important step forwards in erasing misogynistic and harmful narratives about child-free women.”