Children are the future?
How children and motherhood are used in dystopic storytelling
Have you seen the trailer for Emilia Clarke’s next movie, The Pod Generation?
It’s set in a future in which babies are gestated in egg-shaped pods, not in utero. From the trailer, it seems to be an exploration of motherhood. I want to see it. And it also made me think about motherhood, pregnancy, and children in futuristic and dystopic media. Like in Brave New World by Aldous Huxley, babies are manufactured, and embryos are injected with various chemicals based on the caste system in that world. The show based on the novel, which aired for one season on Peacock illustrated this process really well. And of course, The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood is top of mind as well. And as is the recurring theme of this newsletter I stopped watching the Hulu show somewhere in season 3 (I think), it was too much for me. These are two examples of books that were turned into shows, but the one I really want to talk about is Children of Men (2006), a movie loosely based on a book by P.D. James The Children of Men.
Alfonso Cuaron’s adaption features a world in which women are no longer fertile and the youngest person in the world was an 18-year-old South American whose death is announced in the opening scene. If you haven’t seen the movie in a while, here are the basics: Theo played by Clive Owen, is a former rebel turned low-level bureaucrat who is asked by his ex-wife Julian, portrayed by Julianne Moore for help. Julian wants him to take a refugee Kee, Clare Hope Ashitey, to The Human Project. Kee is pregnant and Julian’s group doesn’t want the government to know. In this world, the British government holds refugees in cages and camps and is deporting them. And since no one has had a baby in 18 years, this is a miracle and potentially dangerous.
Over the course of the movie we learn that there was a pandemic about 20 years before, they don’t say that it is connected to the fertility issue but after being in a pandemic for 3 years I can’t help but think about the implications. The world of Children of Men is in deep turmoil, some major cities are gone, nuclear bombs have gone off and people are fleeing violence. Basically end times. It’s a great movie.
It also made me think about where we stand now, in terms of population, the onslaught of legislation against bodily autonomy in the US. And the unprecedented rate of maternal death we have for a “developed” nation. Children are seen as a source of hope, a chance to make things better than they were before. That’s a lot of pressure on a kid and we do a lot in the name of “protecting” children that isn’t about them. Like banning books but not guns. I thought we had to protect the kids?
Birth rates in the U.S. are down. Why? Without doing a Google I would guess that it costs too much, wages are stagnant, personal debt is out of control and the job market is trash. Even people being stuck in the house during COVID did not result in a baby boom. Oh and if you do have a baby, we don’t provide the level of care that is need before, during and after a birth. And the planet is burning.
That said, there’s a lot of innovation on the fertility sector. The possibility of creating a sperm or egg from any other cell in the body, it’s called IVG. Listen to this NPR piece. Sperm and egg made in a laboratory. Already half way to the movie The Pod Generation. I understand the benefit of this but I also worry about how far the science will go. They will start to use CRISPR to design the perfect person. It’s an ethical nightmare.
Okay, I don’t want to be a Debby downer. It’s just that the movies and books that deal with fertility and kids are bleak at best. The heroines are either fighting not to have babies, to protect the children or the children end up fighting for their lives a la The Hunger Games. What’s your favorite dsytopic tale about children and motherhood?