Why I read the Daily Mail's 'Femail'

Few people know my filthy secret. I cringe even to type about it here. 
I read Femail articles on an almost daily basis. 
I could be reading one of the many informative, sciencey, geeky RSS feeds I subscribe to, or BBC News, Wikipedia random articles or anything else. I could learn something from almost anything else. But no, I read this claptrap:


http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-2134653/How-stupid-claim-youre-clever-motherhood.html


Now any article the Mail releases involving women choosing not to have children is bound to stimulate a rash of comments like this:


"Old mother nature has the last laugh she just educated herself out of the gene pool, it's just like she never existed. A sort of natural self culling of the damaged."


and this:


"I wonder if she will be so intelligent as to not be lonely and regrettful (sic) in old age when all she has is a cat for company instead of a loving family."


Others are tirades of barely concealed to downright foaming-at-the-mouth resentment at childlessness from parents (I still haven't figured out quite why this subject raises blood pressure so much. I have concluded that parenthood makes people mental ;)
I'm fairly sure that the people posting these comments did not even read the article. Maybe they trawled the DM's  headlines for things to get angry at, like I do. However, I read the articles. If they had read the article they may have been more inclined to ask just how stupid is Sandra Parsons instead.


Miss Worsley is quoted as saying ‘I have become the poster girl for opting out of reproduction. I am happy to stand up and be counted,...I have been educated out of the natural reproductive function. I get to spend my time doing things I enjoy.’
Now to me this sounds completely unloaded. To me it sounds like she is saying that the world which opened up to her through education is one where she is entirely fulfilled; that education has taken over any space in life which otherwise might be found wanting children. 
Conversely, the title "How stupid to claim you're too clever for motherhood" is an offensive, sensationalist, hook-in-the-eye for the DM quick dirty dose reader, such as myself and the non-article reading, tirade-posting commenters. 
Written as an attack on Miss Worsely it comes across as resentful and jealous of this woman's lifestyle. It seems that Parsons may have some issues with motherhood and the life choices of others.
Written to provoke deliberately (as I really hope most articles in the DM are!) it's a really lame and transparent attempt to wring out meaning that simply isn't in the quote. 
Well it got me reading a wholly pointless filler article, that's for sure. It got me thinking about a wholly pointless filler article and it got me writing this. So now you have read a probably meaningless-for-you piece of prose. I hope you read the article too (you kinda need too if you're gonna read this) .


As soon as I arrive at the Femail homepage I know I will read some wholly pointless filler article. Why do I do this? I don't know what it fulfils in me and I think I need therapy. 
Why did I write this? It's time I started writing because I used to love it and be good at it. And nothing else was coming to mind right now. Apart from shoes.