bernie !

Am I the only one who found it weird, off-putting, and unnecessary when Hopper was talking El down from suicide (self-sacrifice, same thing) and used the fact that she might have a kid of her own one day as a reason for her to stay alive? El is a teenage girl who has not once expressed any desire to become a mother in the future. She is traumatized and has never had any agency in her life. She is also, I must repeat, a teenage girl. Why are we using becoming a mother as motivation to talk down a teenager from suicide? Why are we acting like this is something El wants and has always wanted? Why do male writers always reduce female characters’ bodies to their ability to make babies? Women and girls’ lives are not valuable because of their ability to have children—we are inherently valuable no matter what our bodies may or may not be capable of, whether or not we want kids at all. Our lives have worth because they are ours.