Completely OT...

[CyclChyk]

Lise - love your avitar as well. Mine is my biggest baby Zeus. He is a 1year old boxer. I also have a 7yr old chihuahua named Kong; a 5 year old Chihuahua-dachsund mix named Bruiser; a 3 year old rat-terrier named Zoe; and a 36 year old hubby named Pain in my a** - I mean Bill..........

Chickwhorips - the bible belt is defined as: Those sections of the United States, especially in the South and Middle West, where fundamentalist religious beliefs prevail.

My area happens to be on the border of South Carolina and Georgia. I live where the Masters Golf Tournament is held every year, in Augusta. Here religion is very predominant and dictates much of our local society.

Gawd I long for New England!

[RoadRaven]

The Bazaar cover is different. It's shows basically a pregnant nekkid lady and regardless if its Brittany or anyone else (say Demi Moore back when) is in bad taste. Now if the photo were contained within the Babytalk magazine I probably would not have mind. Context, its all about context.

Hey there BC... excuse me while I deconstruct this statement more as a reflection of society, than of you personally... please understand these thoughts are not aimed at you.

*deep breath*

What I wonder, and I guess what I was trying to say in my earlier post (thank you Fresh, Lenusik, Denise) is why is it a problem to have a tasteful beautiful picture (no, I am NOT a fan of Brittney herself AT ALL) on any magazine? Why does it have to be a parenting magazine?

Parents know that pregnancy is miraculous and stunning, they know the gift they have been given in that child choosing them as her/his guardian.

What I would love to see is that the context for acknowledging the beauty of this time in a womans life be more than parenting circles.

We will always have young males drooling over every hint of "boobage" because everything else about women is hidden away and mysterious. Breasts are literally "out there" and an achievable 'goal'.

However, if we (as a society) took a sensible attitude to women's bodies and didn't ONLY show them as provocative and sexual, then surely our children would realise and understand - with our support and guidance through discussion - that women have this incredible power and beauty and sensuality that isn't always associated with sex.

Of course boys will grow into young men who are interested in sex - it is hormonally and socially programmed into them. We can make sure this interest doesn't become an obsession if we offer a different perspective.

But instead we endeavour to limit exposure to naked and semi-naked women to music videos, girly calendars, page 3 girls, rank lyrics, violent movies and so on.

How can some boys grow up with anything more than a drooling attitude when we do not give them a chance to see the naturalness and beauty that humanity is?

[chickwhorips]

a slight thread drift, but still on the subject of preggers.

happened to be watching TLC last night and they had What Not to Wear: Baby on Board. never knew there was such cute maternity wear out there. they had three ladies that they made over. one a couple months preggers, a couple months to go and one that just had a second baby. i thought it was really good, and it made them all feel good and proud to be new mommys. then they had the guy from TLC's Cover Shot (show that takes mom's and makes them over and does a photoshoot with them) shoot all three of them for a beautiful picture.

back to orriginal pictures we were talking about....

[donnambr]

Hm, where to start...

- Nothing offensive about the baby shot. It's eating, for goodness sake.
- What I really like about the naked pregnant pic is that it is one of the only times you will see a woman on the cover of a popular fashion magazine who isn't dangerously underweight. Otherwise, it is rather unoriginal.
- Now, about Spears getting flack about it - that's another kettle of fish. She's spent her whole career sexualizing & objectifying her body to an extreme that one could argue was without precedent. More so than Madonna. Worse, it was in a somewhat sleazy way with undertones of appearing underaged. Influenced a whole generation of young women's fashion choices. (Have any of you had to write up anyone yet for wearing way too risque clothing to work? I have, and the young woman had no clue why her clothing was problematic! After all, even little girls dress that way...we actually had to write up a dress code, blech!) Now she wants to put that all behind her (for now) and be an icon for pregnant female beauty?? Dream on. I live in Oregon, we have hippies here, so there are plenty of examples of pregnant beauty I can admire that aren't so overdone and far more creative... Ok, can you tell I don't like Spears?

BTW, I am not in the least bit religious, but I am deeply concerned about the effects of sexualizing children and very young women. Pam, you're not the only one who finds thongs for 10 year old girls disturbing.

[Bad JuJu]

My area happens to be on the border of South Carolina and Georgia. I live where the Masters Golf Tournament is held every year, in Augusta. Here religion is very predominant and dictates much of our local society.
Gawd I long for New England!

Or even the northeastern US! I know just what you're talking about, CyclChyk, having been raised in NJ and New England and now living in the southeast. It can be a pretty intolerant culture sometimes. Everyone's pretty friendly at the surface, but don't let them find out that you don't go to church.

On the other hand, I don't want to overgeneralize. I've made some wonderfully understanding friends here, and our neighbors are the best I've ever had. You just have to seek out the ones who are more tolerant.