Can We Give Women a Break?

While standing in the checkout line a couple of months ago purusing the literature (I use that term VERY loosely), I noticed an article entitled "Who's pregnant?" Below the title were three photos of female stars (I don't even remember which ones now, Britney Spears? Gwyneth Paltrow???) with ever so slight belly bulges.

Looking down at my own much larger belly bulge, I started imagining what they might plaster over my photo, "Due any day now?" "The miracle of multiple births?"

Don't we all obsess over our figures? And, what a weight it must be for celebrities whose every ripple of fat is photographed and discussed before millions of people.

I got to thinking of the "Who's pregnant?" magazine cover recently when I was again browsing the fine literary selections at the local grocery store. This time it showed a pencil-thin Angelina Jolie. She hasn't always been this thin. But, as a person who has given birth, I can tell you that it's awfully hard to have a flat stomach afterward, no matter what your weight. I wonder if she's not getting so thin to try to deal with what all mothers do--the stomach that will never, ever, ever snap back to its original position. Especially if you aren't 18 when you have your child.

I occasionally watch with my daughter a kids' show called Zoey 101. Thought not the topic of this post, it stars Britney Spears' little sister.

I noticed the last time I watched it that one of the characters on the show, a pretty young, maybe 14-year-old girl, looks like a skeleton with skin.

What I'm trying to say is that I understand all of these people. Obsession with looks is out of control among women. Male stars... do you see them pencil thin? Does society have the expectation that men always look fabulous and thin and never age?

Then why do we try????