MEDIUM RARE
Standing at the entrance to the shopping mall, the tall and friendly-looking security guard seemed bored enough to start a conversation. So I asked him a few questions while waiting for my car. I began, “How many pregnant women have come into the mall today?”
He was quick to reply, “Haven’t seen any. But I counted 40 ladies with pets.”
I wondered if this little bite of information would interest Philippine Statistics Authority. More fur babies than human bundles of joy? Hmm... Google notes a decline in (human) fertility rates from 2022 to 2024. So, not to worry?
In the last 20 years or so, Asian women like those in China (after a strict one-child policy produced more sons than daughters), Singapore, and Japan appeared to be more interested in taking care of themselves and their career than in raising a husband and family. Today’s ladies are apparently fed up with “traditional” lifestyles where the man is the boss just because he earns a salary. Now that most families, in order to be prosperous and comfortable, need a second salary, women have wised up: I can work for myself, I can succeed on my own, I should be happy even when I’m alone, I don’t need or want to be somebody’s second salary provider.
Without drawing a wide circle just to pick a few examples, some of the smartest, happiest girls I know live alone without a spouse or partner, and they’re not lonely or feeling left out. No, sir, they have a job or a trade, they live in nice, cozy apartments or condos where their neighbors, male and female, are friends who are willing and able to lend a helping hand if and when, as required.
As for the disappearing sight of pregnant women in skirts, it could be that they’re simply more comfortable in pants than skirts, who’s to say? Generally, the skirt is a disappearing article of clothing; though women after their third or fourth month of pregnancy choose to wear skirts. In Paris – this was many years ago – it was said that when a girl showed up for a date in a skirt, the guy would instantly buy her a rose or bouquet as his way of thanking her.