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| DO NOT READ THIS CRAP. |
It is not the over-generalizing lack of scientific rigor that lands this piece of tripe at the top of my shit list, nor is it even the lowest-common-denominator prose.
It's the sniveling. Belly Laughs is 165 pages of victimization, casting the ardors of pregnancy as a pitiable and atrocious burden.
The whole book is a series of poor-me anecdotes. And pregnancy is really frigging hard, don't get me wrong there either. Every day is truly replete with new and surprising discomforts, such as gums that bleed more when we brush our teeth because of the increase in blood vessels all over the body or shoes that no longer fit because the hormone relaxin causes all tendons to loosen up and spread out, especially weight-bearing ones (Mayo Clinic Guide to a Healthy Pregnancy, 2004).
Nothing in the spectrum of human experience compares to the adventure of gestating a self-perpetuating exothermic ball of multiplying energy, with the sole and extremely notable exception of grunting through the impossibly herculean gauntlet of getting that human out of you. In the months after I gave birth a good male friend of mine told me he was trying to go on a research mission for half a year to Antarctica, and I distinctly remember thinking "That's a pretty good adventure, for a man." It's hard to be brave enough to reproduce the human race.
This book does nothing but make it harder. Jenny treats stretch marks as though they were disgusting and shameful things we should be terribly disappointed we can't erase when they are in fact (pardon my cheese here but I believe this) our hard-won badges of heroic bravery, proof we have done something amazingly difficult for which we deserve pure admiration. The one good thing about the pile of drivel that is Belly Laughs is that it polarized my drive to find a writer who understood pregnancy as empowering, and I searched until I found it -- but that's another post.
So, tell us, what do you really think? Oh, and Jenny McCarthy as full of it? After her whole vaccination deal I rather gathered that her opinions and use of science weren't all that good.
ReplyDeleteNow don't bet me wrong. I'm just trying to be snide. I think what your doing with these reviews is great. Keep it up, Finn.
Childbearing is difficult and filled with danger. I'm glad I have not ever had to do it. Even as an external experience it was tough.
However, I'd like to point out one thing and hope I don't get nailed for saying this. It can be the most difficult thing you do, physically. But there are physically harder things and physically more painful things too. You don't have to be a female to experience them. A more potentially rewarding and life-changing event for you though? Nothing beats pregnancy for that, IMO. And your blog has highlighted some ways for making it easier. Thank you for that. Flame away!
Excellent point! In writing a thoughtful reply I pretty much wrote a whole post so that's coming up next... thanks for commenting. And I haven't gotten into ways to make pregnancy easier yet but I will... good idea. :o)
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