While trolling the blogosphere, I came across this site: Shape of a Mother. (Warning: This site contains pictures of unclothed female bodies, so use caution if you're opening the site at work.)
I love this site. Its message is so important. Nobody talks about what bearing children does to a woman's body -- we just hide away our scars and stretch marks and extra pounds and flabby breasts. I feel fortunate that my pregnancy left me without too many battle scars, and still I'll bear these marks forever. We should be proud of the ways our bodies have changed! I'm so glad this site exists to help all mothers embrace the changes in their bodies.
And I'd like to discuss the fact that it isn't just mothers who have body-image issues. I find it heartening that there are efforts, such as Dove's Campaign for Real Beauty, to help all women feel better about their bodies. This work is incredibly important. I hope that my girls will benefit from their efforts and won't feel pressured to be pencil-thin twigs (which they won't be if they inherited their mother's hips).
I say, hooray for curves!
5 comments:
I'm fortunate. My husband likes the curves. The little J.Loesque belly I tried so hard to banish (it wasn't cool then to have less than a flat gut) was what he liked best about me before kids.
Now I'm admittedly overweight and he still thinks I'm smokin'. At the end of the day, he's the only one I'm trying to impress anyway.
So, over the weekend I realized that my body is changing. I'm losing weight and I love that. I'm thinking of taking pictures so that I can remember what I looked like before I lost weight. Whaddaya think? Maybe a bit more motivation to look noticeably different each time I take a picture.
I think that's a great idea! And when you get down to your tenth-anniversary-trip weight, you'll be able to look back and revel in your accomplishment.
This is the most awesome find ever, Kel! I bookmarked to check back after the baby and know I'm not alone.
I like the picture idea. It works two ways, too -- gives you something to look back on and reminds you that you didn't really look as bad as you thought you did. I do this a lot -- feel like I was monstrous-looking at a certain weight and then look at the pictures and think, "Wow. I didn't really look that bad. I was pretty cute." It reminds me to look at my current self as possibly cute rather than what my low body image would have me believe.
I was showing Ruggy the website. I was completely flabergasted at how normal I am.
He's always saying things like, "What are you worried about? You should be proud of them scars."
Seriously, I thought that the stretch marks and hanging skin were something that only happened when you had a freakish pregnancy with two 8 lb. babies in there at once. Evidently I was mistaken.
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