Sperm-Donor Siblings: A Family Portrait
nytimes.com
Sperm-Donor Siblings: A Family Portrait
1–10 of 68 posts
Re: Sperm-Donor Siblings: A Family Portrait
#2Sorry is this is off-topic, but given the context, why are so many of them posed in seemingly erotic ways? It isn't just the women either look at Nik Morgan, 21 near the bottom (no pun intended).
Re: Sperm-Donor Siblings: A Family Portrait
#3Sorry is this is off-topic, but given the context, why are so many of them posed in seemingly erotic ways? It isn't just the women either look at Nik Morgan, 21 near the bottom (no pun intended).
Yeah, the photography choices are so odd. It made the presentation awkward and uncomfortable.
Re: Sperm-Donor Siblings: A Family Portrait
#4I guess it's just the photographer's style, but every one of those portraits looks like the subject been posed in a way that's unnatural for them, and they're not enjoying it.
Re: Sperm-Donor Siblings: A Family Portrait
#5I guess it's just the photographer's style, but every one of those portraits looks like the subject been posed in a way that's unnatural for them, and they're not enjoying it.
Perhaps that's partially the point? They've all been brought together in a manner that, for almost everyone, is uncomfortable and strange... to say nothing about the nature of the connection they share which is awkward, even to them.
Re: Sperm-Donor Siblings: A Family Portrait
#6Aside from the bizarre, uncomfortable poses in the photographs, the subjects all look somewhat dejected, as if their existence in this world is very clinical. Not sure if that’s what the photographer was going for but kudos to him for keeping such a consistent style across multiple loosely related people. I imagine it could be like herding cats.
Re: Sperm-Donor Siblings: A Family Portrait
#7The essay's author talks a little bit about how he and some of his half-siblings feel a sense of loss, or that something feels missing, or that they wished they had a father.
But the essay never really touches on whether they _resent_ the fact that their parent or parents made the choice to have them conceived through artificial insemination from an anonymous donor. Obviously, if that hadn't happened, they wouldn't be around to resent it -- but it's still possible to feel conflicted about it.
I'm sure there are some people who do carry that resentment and some people who don't, and we often hear stories about the latter, but I've heard fewer stories about the former and would be interested to hear their voices and perspectives.
Re: Sperm-Donor Siblings: A Family Portrait
#8Sorry is this is off-topic, but given the context, why are so many of them posed in seemingly erotic ways? It isn't just the women either look at Nik Morgan, 21 near the bottom (no pun intended).
I think a lot of them aren’t really erotic, so much as there’s an overlap between “erotic poses” and “vulnerable poses.” A lot seemed to be posed in a manner that I would call, artificially, awkwardly, vulnerable.
Which might be the point, for all I know.
Re: Sperm-Donor Siblings: A Family Portrait
#9Sorry is this is off-topic, but given the context, why are so many of them posed in seemingly erotic ways? It isn't just the women either look at Nik Morgan, 21 near the bottom (no pun intended).
It's simply the timeless art of seduction: https://i.imgur.com/J8vRD5Y.png
Re: Sperm-Donor Siblings: A Family Portrait
#10The essay's author talks a little bit about how he and some of his half-siblings feel a sense of loss, or that something feels missing, or that they wished they had a father. But the essay never really touches on whether they _resent_ the fact that their parent or parents made the choice to have them conceived through artificial insemination from an anonymous donor. Obviously, if that hadn't happened, they wouldn't b…
Well. You can hear my voice. I'm the child of a sperm donor. I didn't learn about it till I was 18... which was more than a bit strange.
The emotions that come from the combination of society's familial expectations, your own complicated family, and just the general fact that it's nice to be alive is a really strange cocktail. But... I'm not sure resent is a word that I would ever use, even in my bizarre situation of having learned later in life. Instead of resentment I would probably describe a bubbling dystopian feeling. For me, I often focus on the fact that my life, or at least the genetic specifics of my being, is directly a result of technological progress. The very core of who I am everyday in my life relies on the fact that society enabled my mom to have children without her (ex)-husband. That's pretty strange.
These feelings come up most strongly when I look in a mirror. The physical features are the inescapable consequence, right? I think this is what made this photo essay so impactful for me. That photos so strongly highlight what is most stark about being the child of a sperm donor.
In the thesaurus, vex is listed alongside resent. That word seems to get at the core of what I feel. When I think too long or hard it just feels vexing... it's very "what the fuck"-ish.