By far the most interesting article I read today was about China. China's demographics are so very interesting! It has a highly abnormal sex ratio favoring males, and it also forced a sub-replacement birth rate on its people. Indeed, the abnormal sex ratio was caused by the depression in the birth rate due to the one-child policy. The Chinese government lifted the one-child policy, replacing it with a two-child policy in 2015. However, the birth rate has not bounced back. It remains depressed, and is even falling. The Chinese government views this as a very unfortunate state of affairs, given it has world power aspirations. You can't be a world power if your population is, by and large, senior citizens.
So I was both surprised and not surprised to discover that there is a new catch phrase in China--zigong daode--which roughly translates to "uterine morality." It is employed pretty much exclusively by women to refer to their new--and higher--standards for having children. The highest ethics of giving birth is apparently to give birth to superior children--children with good looks and brains, and healthy bodies. The article gave a sampling of comments reflecting "uterine morality":
“The uterus is a holy site of human evolution, not a toxic factory for churning out garbage or petulant kids. Because women bear this huge responsibility, they should establish a system of uterine morals. For instance, births should be ‘neither random nor rampant,’ and (women should) ‘bear and rear better children.’”
“Women need morals of the womb. … You see women marrying some fugly dude like they’re blind and then popping out a couple of little piggies. If children are going to be that ugly, then their life is basically halfway over.”
“Only women with a sense of ‘uterine morality’ truly love their children. They reject ugly, poor, sick, and abusive men, and they would never hurt their own descendants just to satisfy their sexual perversions.”
Jeepers, uterine morality appears to be about eugenics! The author mentions, and I agree, that the lopsided sex ratio is enabling hypergamy, and apparently some Chinese women have taken to it like a moth to flame. That is, when there are far more many men than women (30-50 million more in China), women can be very, very choosy. But what the proponents of zigong daode seem to be choosy about is who will provide the best genetic material! The author notes, "Earlier this year a blogger proposed the establishment of a national sperm bank for “good-looking, smart, healthy men” to stop China’s fertility rate from falling." Apparently without good genes on tap, women aren't willing to bear children.
I'm reminded of the Bible verse about sowing the wind and reaping the whirlwind. When male Chinese officials created the one-child policy back in the 1970s, did they realize what havoc they would wreak on their nation? Of course not--they viewed women as reproductive machines that their policies could turn on and off. They could not possibly imagine that Chinese women would refuse to reproduce. Checkmate.The Chinese government is but reaping what it has sown. It sowed misery and forced abortions and sterilizations for women; it reaps an aging population with too few children.