Tuesday, July 16, 2013

After pregnancy

BBC posted a story asking Are women's bodies still beautiful after pregnancy?. I'm a little puzzled why anybody would think this a live issue. Even if you don't trust the evidence of your eyes, consider that most women who have one child have more than one.

Puff piece for a new book...

2 comments:

Assistant Village Idiot said...

Yeah, I think it's just a way to get people's attention and start arguments.

When you have children your face screws up in worry more and you get angry more often, so no, you don't look better. For women, the added weight is considered a beauty negative for 75% of the younger group, so probably 90% by a second pregnancy. But you get a human being out of it, so it's not a bad trade. For celebrity women and athletes, whose careers are more often dependent on bodies, it's more likely to be an open question. For anesthesiologists, not so much.

james said...

Granted there's some sampling bias (the first often leads to the second), but it seems that at the pool or beach the most attractive women are the young mothers.

Yes, if your career depends on how your body looks, anything that shifts from the prescribed norms (including birthdays) may be a problem.

And appearance seems to be a qualification in more fields than it used to be. Remember a few years back when some classical musicians were trying to stand out from the pack by posing wearing only their instruments? Larger population, smaller pool of top dogs (do you go to simulcasts of the Met or your local opera company?), harsher competition.