The Third Gilmore Girl

by Kelly Bishop

I tend to prefer the company of animals to the company of people. Animals are honest—there’s not a hint of pretense about them, they just unapologetically are who they are, and their capacity to love and be loved outshines ours by about a million.

Whatever maternal instincts I was born with were exclusively limited to taking care of animals. Other than that, no thanks.

From childhood on, not wanting children was as unapologetic a fact about me as my ethnicity, and I was just as unapologetic about it as an adult, which put me on the receiving end of such mystifying reactions as “You don’t really know what it’s like to be a woman until you have children” and “Are you a lesbian?” Well, yes, I do, and no, I’m not, so take it or leave it.

“You know, if men could get pregnant, abortion clinics would outnumber Starbucks.”