Procrastadabbler

The NYTimes has a rather disturbing article today about the “Mom Job.” The Mom Job is plastic surgery to remove the physical results of pregnancy. It is a package deal that includes breast lifts (with our without implants), liposuction, and a tummy tuck. That alone is disturbing that society on the whole and many women in particular cannot accept changes to their body. Now I admit, I work at maintaining my weight and I work out, but it’s in the interest of healthy. I am 50 years old and gravity has done it’s thing to me. So be it.

 Anyway, combine the Mom Job with another story I heard on NPR recently – large families are now a status symbol. Upper middle class women are having three or more children. They call it “competitive birthing.” Middle class folk can’t afford more than one or two children, but having three or more kids is a way of demonstrating how well off the family is. Plus these women are having their large brood with the help of nanny’s, etc. These are women who were educated to be competitive in the marketplace and they have taken that competitiveness into the ‘burbs.

 So, now we have a group of women who have large families, but the bodies of someone who has never been pregnant.

I see it as all about social class. Weight, physical fitness, and now body shape are markers of socioeconomic status. And now children too.