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Sunday, October 14, 2007
Feeling sexy? Need a ‘Mom Job?’
There's a sexy mom push in pop culture and plastic surgeons are getting on board. How about you?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Many of us know friends who are doing it, and now it has a name: “The Mom Job.”
It’s not part-time work that a mom can do while her kids are in school or even something nice a mom does for her husband in the bedroom. It’s a new term for that tummy tuck, breast lift and liposuction that more and more women are getting after giving birth.
There’s been a big movement in recent years that moms are supposed to be sexy. I don’t mean look-nice-and-keep-yourself-up sexy. I mean look so good that other men, not just your husband, think you’re sexy.
The sexy mom phenomenon is showing up all over pop-culture. You may have heard the term Cougars — sexy older women dating younger men. This summer there was a dating show called “Age of Love” where 40-something women competed with 20-year-olds for a man. The 40-year-olds were called Cougars, the 20-year-olds called Kittens.
And of course there’s the very popular acronym for the term Mothers I’d Like to … . I can’t finish the saying here, although NBC recently allowed it on their show “30 Rock.” I hear this term from moms who want to be one, dads who want to find one and now on the television.
The sexy mom phenomenon showed up again a few weeks ago on ABC. A character on the show “Brothers and Sisters” asked, ‘Do you think I should get a mommy job?”
Plastic surgery statistics are reflecting this new sexy mommy push. The New York Times reported Oct. 4, “Last year, doctors nationwide performed more than 325,000 ‘mommy makeover procedures’ on women ages 20 to 39, up 11 percent from 2005.”
The New York Times article explained that there are two major concerns over this trend: First, women are choosing to have more surgery than they normally would because it’s being offered as a package deal. The breast lift, the tummy tuck and the liposuction complete the “mommy makeover.”
Second, and far bigger concern, is that women are being convinced that their bodies are disfigured by childbirth, instead of perceiving the changes as simply part of nature.
Dr. David A. Stoker, a plastic surgeon in Marina Del Rey, Calif. told the New York Times that “severe physical trauma of pregnancy, childbirth and breast-feeding can have profound negative effects that cause women to lose their hourglass figures.”
Severe trauma of pregnancy, childbirth and breast-feeding? Profound negative effects? These words seem awfully harsh for a natural process that has occurred since the beginning of time. And do we all have to be hourglasses? Isn’t it OK for a 30 or 40-something year old woman not to have a perfect figure?
Yes, your body changes from having children. No, it’s not going to be the same again. But that’s OK! You’re a different person mentally and emotionally after bringing children into the world. Why shouldn’t you be physically?
I agree we should all feel good about ourselves. We should all take care of ourselves. Our husbands should find us attractive. But do we really need to look good enough to compete with 20-year-olds? There are some cases where plastic surgery is probably needed. I know some moms who had twins or botched C-sections where their bodies did not recover and no amount of exercise can fix their issues. For them, surgery is probably the best choice.
But for a large majority of moms, I honestly think they can feel great simply by buying a good bra, choosing flattering clothes, working out and accepting that their bodies are probably never going to look exactly as they did before kids.
It’s fine if a mom wants to have a “Mom Job,” but I just want women to choose these surgeries to please themselves and not because of some new bizarre societal pressure for moms to be sexy.
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