Getting messy

[theatokos]

I am watching a Today show segment on C-sections. Some women want c-sections because it is more convenient; they can schedule the birth and get on with their lives. Now, I understand that c-sections are vital in most of the cases where they occur. But when words like "convenience" begin creeping into discussions about birth, my back goes up. It had better be damn well convenient for the woman giving birth first and foremost. Husbands, partners, jobs, and doctors are secondary. I find hospitals to be sterile and cold places in which to give birth. Propped up, flourescent lights, etc etc. Giving birth isn't convenient; it's messy, painful, stressful, but it's a cause for celebration. I wish we would treat birthing, in all its phases, as the miracle it is. But we hide anything that is messy, no matter how integral to the outcome. Sweaty? Unsexy, unless you're a football player. Dying? Shuffle 'em off to nursing homes. Old? Get surgery to look young. Even sex is portrayed as slick, clean, and hairless. We have taken the mess out of life. I read an article about a month ago about a woman who went in for a bikini wax before going off to her c-section. Good lord, the nurses might see pubic hair! I'm sure they would've been put off.

Of course, I have never given birth. I've never even been pregnant. There's a good chance I'll feel differently once I'm pregnant. But I like mess, it's in the mess where great things happen.

Comments

[blessed-harlot.livejournal.com]

Many, many AMENS and good lord this is frightening. Scheduling birth to maximize productivity. Sad.

[blessed-harlot.livejournal.com]

You mention a hair issue - attitudes about hair are so fascinating to study in this culture. I have spent the last few years with various parts of my (female) body shaven or (horror of horrors) unshaven, and the responses are illuminating (from men and women alike). We have somehow ended up in an extremely hair-phobic culture. There seems to be a collective pathological need to remove it from where it's "not supposed to be." I think it's connected to racism... who is it, after all, who tend to have hairier bodies, but the same groups maligned and oppressed for years? Maybe it's also connected to this messiness issue... an avoidance of intimacy with one another. If we don't let our bodies look too natural, then maybe we won't have to risk sharing our real selves with others.

[ewigweibliche.livejournal.com]

The hair thing *is* fascinating. I too have been variously shaved/unshaven. I had never thought about the rascism thing.... it's my understanding though (I shall disclose that I am as white as they come) that Asians and Africans don't have tons of hair. As a white girl of almost entirely British Isles descent, I am the hairiest woman I have ever seen, in photos or in real life. So I don't know about the rascism thing. I would go further to say it's another avenue for sexism, one more way to control women's bodies. Keep women preoccupied thinking something is wrong with them and they won't question the more subtle but more deeply pernicious methods of injustice. Granted, even I don't find my unshaven legs to appealing, but when I am responded to as a freak of nature it really is self-esteem crushing and takes a lot of damn effort to keep the defenses up. Whether or not a woman chooses to shave should be her own choice and aesthetic, but it is awful that even our cunts have become fashion statements.