Sarah Diehl: „Die Uhr, die nicht tickt“

“If my biological clock is telling me anything, it’s that I’m at the perfect age to write this book.”

More and more women are voluntarily remaining childless, and not just in Germany. But talk about the biological clock is so omnipresent that women distrust themselves if they don’t hear the clock ticking. They doubt their own ability to make decisions because they are told that they must want something else.

When it comes to having children, the notion of the innate “maternal instinct” and the idea of the blissful happiness of the nuclear family are held on to unwaveringly. Politicians and society build up demographic and biologistic nightmares in order to hold on to old family concepts and gender hierarchies. Not wanting a child is seen as unnatural, selfish or cowardly. Sarah Diehl, herself childless, has interviewed people who are socialized as women and who are not parents by choice. She learned that there are many reasons for this, but selfishness or narcissism are not among them.

Sarah Diehl analyzes how the poor image of the childless woman is built up as a means of pressuring her into unpaid care work. Her book is an overdue plea for an unprejudiced and contemporary approach to female identity and for new concepts of living together in solidarity.

On this evening, Sarah Diehl will read from her book at the Habibi Kiosk and talk with Tanïa Bloch and Sandra Lüders about it and her work in general.

Note:

Of course, not only people who identify as women can get pregnant. Sarah Diehl takes a critical look at role models that affect all people who are socialized as women and read as women. We look forward to an exchange with all of you at the event.

Sarah Diehl

Photo: Ivo Mayer

Tanïa Bloch

Photo: Johanna Lohr

Sandra Lüders

Photo: Andreas Gregor

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