Changes in the Childfree Discourse: A Longitudinal Analysis

Fanmei Xia, Yale University

This study examines the gendered dimensions of voluntary childlessness, a growing phenomenon in the U.S. and globally. While existing research disproportionately centers women’s motivations, men’s perspectives remain underexplored, reinforcing a binary that frames reproduction as a “women’s issue.” Drawing on 1.8 million posts and comments from over 72,000 Reddit users (2009–2025), I combine Structural Topic Modeling (STM) with Fairclough’s three-dimensional critical discourse analysis to investigate how online childfree discourse has evolved over 25 years and how social, economic, and cultural considerations shape individuals’ reproductive desires. By mapping topic trends and analyzing gendered narratives, the study interrogates how such discourse reproduces, contests, and complicates societal norms. This work broadens scholarship on family, gender, and reproduction, exploring whether childfreedom operates as a site of transformative agency or reinforcement of existing hierarchies.

No extended abstract or paper available

 Presented in Session 196. Revolutionary Writing, Identity, and Social Discourse