Jennifer Aniston
At a press conference for her new comedy The Switch, about an unmarried middle-aged woman who decides to conceive via artificial insemination rather than waiting for the right man to come along, Jennifer Aniston sparked controversy by telling journalists, “Women are realizing more and more that you don’t have to settle, they don’t have to fiddle with a man to have that child. They are realizing if it’s that time in their life and they want this part, they can do it with or without that.” Aniston said further, “The point of the movie is, what is that which defines family? It isn’t necessarily the traditional mother, father, two children and a dog named Spot.”
Danielle Bean, editorial director of Faith & Family magazine, responded in the Washington Post: “Dads are more than sperm donors, more than paychecks, and more than goofy fodder for popular sitcoms. They are fully one half of what every child needs for a healthy home life and an integral part of God’s plan for future generations.”
Bean said: “Even if it makes Hollywood stars feel old-fashioned and quaint, we need to fully recognize every child’s right to be raised by a mother and a father. However politically uncomfortable it makes us, we need to more fully appreciate the complementary differences between the sexes and admit that no one sex can give a child everything he or she needs.”
Focus on the Family’s CitizenLink noted that “Research tells us that fathers make unique and vital contributions into the life of a child, and that children do best, on average, in a home with their biological, married parents.”
