Siobhan O'Connor
Author of No More Dirty Looks.
- March 3, 2009 • 12:03 pm PST
- + responses
A coworker showed me this yesterday-a post about inconsistent translations of a pamphlet for expecting mothers from Kaiser Permanente Hospitals in Los Angeles. It's being called an example of anti-natalism-a subtle effort to dissuade Spanish-speaking moms from having more babies. At first glance that sounds a little paranoid, so let's look at the evidence.
In the English-language version, expecting mothers are congratulated on their new arrival, and they are pointed to six resources on offer at the hospital for new moms (of the six, one is information about tubal sterilization). The Spanish version, meanwhile, forgoes congratulations for the basic "You're going to have a baby!" and points new moms to just three of the six classes-highlighting (according to one reading of the pamphlet, anyway), tubal sterilization. There's some healthy debate on Contexts.org-some calling it a weak example of anti-natalism, others saying the proof is in the pudding.
In the English-language version, expecting mothers are congratulated on their new arrival, and they are pointed to six resources on offer at the hospital for new moms (of the six, one is information about tubal sterilization). The Spanish version, meanwhile, forgoes congratulations for the basic "You're going to have a baby!" and points new moms to just three of the six classes-highlighting (according to one reading of the pamphlet, anyway), tubal sterilization. There's some healthy debate on Contexts.org-some calling it a weak example of anti-natalism, others saying the proof is in the pudding.
We've got an email out to Kaiser. We'll let you know what they have to say.
The English version:
And the Spanish version:
.JPG)
