"We have grown accustomed to those nice parents in our neighborhood being a couple of men, or women, or a single one of any sex. We will get used to them being a threesome or foursome as well. And then we’ll see the new normal as simply the real." https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/12/opinion/ivg-reproductive-technology.html?smid=tw-share

I'm deeply fascinated by the social history of IVF and surrogacy. It wasn't terribly long ago we all viewed motherhood as a matter of biology--adoptive mothers were (and in many cases are) marked with an asterisk by both the law and religion.

Conservatives to this day claim parents (though especially mothers) who adopt or use surrogates are "biologically" less equipped to care for their children. They, in fact, withhold the word "mother," believing "mother" as a term to be based in biology and strict gender roles.

But most people accept it's not. Most people understand that a "mother" is more than ovaries, genes, or breasts. Mothering is a verb, after all--being a mother is a thing you do and become by doing. We insult mothers of every stripe if we ignore this fact.

It's a similar path, I suspect, the words "woman" and "man" are on. Many may define them as biology for now, but we will soon recognize the connection between womanhood and two X chromosomes is as ill-fitting for many as the connection between motherhood and birth.