Hannah/Muddling Along published this post on 8 April, 2011...
I could take up another Friday Rant on my work situation but to be honest that’s probably getting a bit dull for everyone.
I have nothing further to report. Bossman continues to avoid discussing my memo around flexible working and continues to act like a toddler put into a position of power. I’m considering buying some Ritalin and dosing his coffee to see if that helps…. In fact I’ve gone from ranty to just narked. Hopefully I’ve rediscover my forcefulness when he (finally) decides to talk.
This rant is driven by my body which seems to be buckling under the strain – I’m writing this as I sit in the waiting from at the doctors in fact. Two babies 18 months apart is not a great idea from a physical perspective – something I only discovered after I’d had the two babies… And then discovered all the side effects, most of which appear to be unpleasant.
Why is it that women have to live with the physical consequences of having babies and men get away with nothing. A few grey hairs perhaps but they aren’t the ones having the c-sections, the incontinence, the saggy tummies. They aren’t the ones who see their bodies riddled with stretch marks and in a totally different shape than pre children.
And yet the media seem determined to perpetuate the myth that women should look like a 16 year old girl at all times, even a couple of weeks postpartum.
We are supposed to bear our babies and spring back into a youthful lissomness without hesitation. Our skin must be dewy (or photoshopped to look the same), our hair glossy and without grey, we must eschew lines or shadows or any marks that demonstrate a life lived well.
We must live a life bombarded by images which bear no resemblance to actual reality after hours spent on a computer touching them up.
We must aspire to an image of womanhood that is quite frankly unattainable. And if we fail to live up to this standard and we have the misfortune to be in the public eye then we can expect toe-curlingly awful articles deriding our dress sense, our shape, our size, our ‘lack of self respect’.
A man can be dishevelled and is considered intelligent, a woman can only be decorative. But what if you aren’t one of these fairy-tale women – what is breastfeeding doesn’t make the babyweight fall off, what if you fall into the normal camp of 9 months on/9 months off?
What if unlike Danni Minogue byou aren’t chirping about how only three months after having a baby that you haven’t quite lost all the weight but saying you’re happy to wear a crop top or Danielle Lloyd
revealing her ‘incredible’ post baby body?
How on earth do those articles make you feel?
Or what about if you’re one of the many women, me included, who end up with pelvic floor issues after childbirth and are barely continent – getting through a day is a big enough challenge without being berated for not going to a gym that you couldn’t attend in case you wet yourself in public because exercise puts even more stress on an already weakened part of your body.
Why on earth can’t we just consider the messages that are being sent out?
Why on earth can’t we see this picture
of Imperfect Pages and see strong, beautiful mother and nothing else? Why can’t the media give women a break?
What messages are we sending out to our daughters and our sons about how women should look in the real world?
Make sure to head over to Hannah/Muddling Along's blog Muddling Along Mummy for more must-read posts.
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