This originally appeared on AimeePerkins.com. Republished here with permission. I was sitting in a pub with two fellow students from my grad program, both of whom are in their early 20’s, one male and one female. Our conversation meandered in the way they do when there’s beer on the table and I found myself saying, […]
Talking about our body image issues is how we get past them, not being silent about them, says Lynn Beisner. When I was in my late teens, Kellogg’s marketed their Special K cereal with an ad campaign that promised if you ate their magic flakes no one would be able to find an inch of […]
The supermodel’s breastfeeding ritual may look different than yours, but that doesn’t make her less of a mom. Last week, Gisele Bundchen shared a Vogue-worthy photograph of herself breastfeeding her 1-year-old daughter Vivian on her Instagram account, while two stylists worked on her hair and another painted her nails. The photo of her looking relaxed […]
If women can be made to believe that our brains are biologically inferior, then we will think twice about our encroachments into a world that used to be the sole province of men. You know all the stereotypes about Guardian readers? How we’re all dope-smoking hippies or intellectual-types who spend our energy fretting and slathering […]
Emily Rapp once worked as a bra-fitter for Victoria’s Secret, and every single woman she fitted confessed how much she hated her body. From 1992 to 1996, whenever I was home from college visiting my parents in Denver, I worked at Victoria’s Secret in an “upscale” mall close to downtown. This was before the store […]
That happy-ever-after narrative we’re sold as kids doesn’t always work out. But there are alternatives. Say you are a young woman in your 20’s established in your career of choice. For as long as you can remember, you know you’ve wanted a child. There is not a long-term partnership in your semi-near future. Do you: […]
This originally appeared on The Daily Life. Republished here with permission. Pregnancy and childbirth used to be so dangerous in centuries past that most women wrote their wills once they knew they were pregnant. Now we write birth plans, specifying the type of music we want playing while we’re in labor. Progress is a wonderful […]
Jennifer Benjamin wants to make sure people know she’s nice, so she fills emails and texts with overly enthusiastic e-speak (and the occasional emoticon). But she’s starting to annoy herself. I have a problem, an embarrassing problem. I’m ashamed to even admit it, although I have a feeling that my friends and family may already […]
You are not fat, you are smart, it’s OK to be afraid, and have lots of sex. Dear Younger Self: I know you’re sitting in your basement room, or listening to melodramatic music in the rickety lofted bed in your college dorm room, or ruminating in a cracker box apartment with the heat or the […]
If you ‘let yourself go’ physically, your value as a woman in our society is nil. But if you don’t let yourself go, you will never survive the journey of motherhood, says Telaina Eriksen. At the grocery store on Sunday, my heaping cart included enough food to last the four of us for a week […]
My brain says we’re done, but my ovaries are going, “You sure about that?” My husband and I always knew we wanted two kids—no more, no less, just two kids. Two kids that would always have each other; two kids that we could afford to feed and clothe and educate and take to gym class; […]
Only 12% of middle-aged women are “satisfied” with their bodies. Is the body image prison not something we ever break out of? I was 11 the first time I remember a stranger commenting on my figure. I was trying on skirts for Bat Mitzvah season and a saleslady told me I had a “bubble butt.” […]
