ABSTRACT
This folder shows the profound way in which childlessness affects relationships across all domains of life, switching between the researcher’s own experience, that of her interviewees, and research. It makes the point, among others, that not having children has devastating consequences for social networks of support (leading to isolation, an extremist-like “mental geography” of perceived “friends” and “enemies”), interactions in public places (e.g. “battles” with parents, applying a different etiquette code), and what happens in the bedroom (intimacy, sex).
