Leaving Barbie Land
As a kid, I loved the groovy women's libbers fighting for the futures of girls like me. Who could have imagined the work would be so hard?
When the Supreme Court ruled on Roe v. Wade in January 1973, I was in the first grade. I misheard the television newscaster—I thought he was announcing a scientific breakthrough rather than a legal matter—but I got the gist. A woman who was pregnant could become not-pregnant. I still wasn’t entirely clear on how women became pregnant, but it was always treated like a surprise. A happy surprise called for cake and presents and hand-knit baby blankets. A bad surprise meant becoming an “unwed mother,” and the end of all your hopes and dreams.
When I heard news that women could become unpregnant, I filed the information in the folder children have in their brains marked, STUFF THAT MIGHT BE IMPORTANT IN THE FUTURE. I was glad to know I’d never suffer the fate of the doomed young mothers I saw in television dramas and news reports. That narrative-ending plot point would never happen to me.
The early 1970s was an exciting time to be a little girl. The world wa…