Are We Women enough?
When seeing the picture of maternal normality on the cover of the new issue of TIME magazine yesterday, a certain jubilation shook me and my friends on Facebook.
Someone finally made it to ‘the other side’, a place where a stamp of validity was placed on a subject to say we are now members of acceptable society and not at all weird for breastfeeding ‘older’ children. We might even stop persecuting your strange behaviours too.
But read the small print.
Sadly it talks about extreme parenting. Extremists, a word that in post 9/11 America has become synonymous with evil and deviancy.
The small print talks about how these extremists have a leader, Dr. Sears, who they refer to as a ‘guru’.
A guru? Are we a sect? Are we in need of a leader, a man no less, to tell us how to use our breasts in motherhood?
The big print on the other hand challenges women readers and perpetuates the fight.
But which fight is that? And it’s a good question, because there isn’t any.
It was imposed so the system can keep milking its benefits by selling formula milk and sex.
So the question sees the traditional ‘Are you man enough?’ challenge altered to ‘Are you mum enough?’
I’m sure there will be the usual explanations of needing to attract readers, open debates, bring ‘extended’ breastfeeding to the wider public, etc, etc, etc, but I don’twant to be on the cover of a magazine (*)
I don’t need to be given respect, permission or feel that I need protection from insult.
I just want to be left alone to make maternal decisions free from economical or political pressure.
That will suit me just fine. And you know what? I’m not asking for permission or confirmation.
All I ask is: Are we women enough to be ourselves in todays society and the future?
(*) With all my support and respect to the mum portrayed in the cover, who I know she is fantastic, and I am sure did it for all the right reasons.