Forgive me for being snotty, but this is neither news nor groundbreaking. Hundreds of books have been written on the expectations of and for new mothers and how they rarely meet the standards of the myth. Is it really so amazing that celebrities aim for public narratives of perfection? And that the media notices?
Recent Comments
- octogalore on Things That are Dope
- missbhs on Things That are Dope
- Marked Hoosier on Things That are Dope
- Auguste on Things That are Dope
- Anne on Things That are Dope
Links
Archives
- November 2008
- October 2008
- September 2008
- August 2008
- July 2008
- June 2008
- May 2008
- April 2008
- March 2008
- February 2008
- January 2008
- December 2007
- November 2007
- October 2007
- September 2007
- August 2007
- July 2007
- June 2007
- May 2007
- April 2007
- March 2007
- February 2007
- January 2007
- December 2006
- November 2006
- October 2006
- September 2006
- August 2006
Categories
- 100 Things
- About
- Activism
- Advertising
- Animals
- Art
- Asides
- Assholes
- Back In the Day
- Barack Obama
- Beauty
- Blegging
- Bloggery
- Blogging
- Books
- Business
- Celebrity
- Chef
- Children
- Class
- Clothing
- Complaints Dept.
- Computers
- Consume
- Craft
- Culture
- Design
- Dick Cheney
- Dudes
- E
- Education
- Election
- Entertainment
- Environment
- Family
- Feminism
- Film
- Food
- Fred Thompson
- Games
- Gardening
- George W. Bush
- GLBTQ
- Good Reads
- Grown Ass Men
- Hate
- Health
- Help Us Help Ourselves
- Hillary Clinton
- History
- Holidays
- Housing
- Humor
- Idiots
- Idols
- Indiana
- John McCain
- Karl Rove
- Katrina
- Labor
- Language
- Law
- Marriage
- Meme
- Money
- Movies
- Music
- Obligation
- Parenthood
- People
- Pets
- Podcasts
- Poetry
- Politics and News
- Poverty
- Pr0n
- Racism
- Recipes
- Relationships
- Religion
- Round Up
- Rudy Giuliani
- School
- Science
- Sex
- Sports
- Stories
- Stuff
- Suburbia
- Technology
- The Tube
- Things We Can Do
- Travel
- Violence
- War
- Weirdness
- Whee!
- Wordpress
- Work
In a twisted way, what we have now is progress. Celebrity mothers mostly used to disappear for twelve to eighteen months. The exception being Lucille Ball, I think. People were astounded that she made a TV show with her real life husband and was pregnant. Horrors. I’m kind of glad to see that disheveled-assed Spears. I can relate to that.
*
What really bothers me about this article is the fact that it blames so much on the media and consumerism. Motherhood has always been boring at times. From what I’ve read, it’s only very recently that parents, often mothers, in wealthy countries like the US focus mostly on the care and raising of children once they spawn. I think there’s a larger issue involving the new cult people have created around children and the perfect childhood. Consumer culture generally reflects what’s already there, IMO.
*
I kind of roll my eyes when people go off into that, “back in the day they pulled their own legs off and beat a mammoth to death with it, and they liked it” thing, but I believe children used to be integrated more fully into people’s lives. If they weren’t strapped to your back, they were down working with you. This capitalist paradigm that we’ve set up for ourselves, with very little room for the needs of the whole family, really bugs. Stay home with your kiddo and be broke, or farm your kid out…and be brokish. Great choices, thank you.