A Girl in the World

I’m just a girl in the world

That’s all that you’ll let me be!

– No Doubt “Just a Girl

I’m about to have a daughter and as thrilled as I am, I’m also scared. When J found out we’re having a girl, he said he was more nervous now because he has to protect her more (than a boy). He was thinking about protecting her from all the boys who come calling and keeping her his precious, innocent little girl forever. Later on, I was thinking more about the idea of bringing a girl into the world and that’s when I also felt an increased sense of needing to protect her. However, I wasn’t worried about raging hormones so much as I was worried about the world at large. The world is not the kindest to girls/women.

Of course sexism goes both ways and boys fight against gender stereotypes as well, but I am most acutely aware of sexism against girls. There are several things I worry about for my daughter and all girls, for that matter, all children. First, and perhaps most extreme, we live in a rape culture, a culture that normalizes rape and sexually demeaning behaviors and sentiments. I could go on and on about this, but to avoid ranting and rambling, I will point to the examples of Rethaeh Parsons of Nova Scotia (semi-close to where I grew up), the Steubenville case, and other stories like them. These cases involve videos of rape, being passed around with the same cavalier attitude with which you might forward a funny cat video to a friend. These videos were treated as entertainment, the rapists were defended, and the victims were “slut-shamed” and vilified. Rethaeh Parson’s killed herself and she is certainly not the only victim of rape to do so. I worry about my daughter growing up in a world that condones and normalizes such behaviors while further victimizing the person who is raped. Something that Jessica Valenti (on my blogroll under parenting but she really need to be moved to either a feminism or miscellaneous category. I erroneously put her in the parenting category based my first exposure to her) posted on her blog really struck a cord with me:

What kind of world do we live in when young men are so proud of violating unconscious girls that they pass proof around to their friends? It’s the same kind of world in which being labeled a slut comes with such torturous social repercussions that suicide is preferable to enduring them. As a woman named Sara Erdmann so aptly tweeted to me, “I will never understand why it is more shameful to be raped than to be a rapist.”

Aside from rape, which albeit unfortunately common, may be the extreme, there are many more forms of sexual aggression. Anything from leering, to comments, to being brushed up against or groped. Anything that could make her feel unsafe, violated, or uncomfortable in her own skin. Anything that could make her feel ashamed for something someone else chose to do to her body against her wishes.

Second, women are sadly overtly and covertly defined in our society by their appearance. Some women are thankfully recognized for more, but appearance never leaves the picture completely, and all too often appearance outweighs accomplishments. Although this fact was not new to me, the point was driven home when I watched the amazing documentary Miss Representation. Because it was a documentary and pieces of media were spliced together, things that may go by unnoticed or become quickly forgotten in isolation became shocking when shown in quick succession. Two key parts of the documentary were most surprising to me. The first was how female broadcasters were so often wearing low cut, revealing outfits and when they tried to turn discussion back to real news stories instead of something inane or fluffy (e.g., how contrite Paris Hilton looked after her brief stint in jail), they were often shut down by male broadcasters. These female broadcasters appeared to serve the primary purpose of “eye candy” whereas news reporting sadly came second. The second point that astonished me (and maybe I was naive to be astonished by this) was the coverage of Hilary Clinton during her campaign to be the democratic candidate for president. Instead of focusing on the issues and her campaign platform, news headlines referred to her as a bitch, made fun of her pant suits, and made claims that she would be inappropriate in office because of PMS. Even with a more positive spin, such comments are asinine when discussing politics. Sarah Palin’s appearance was praised, but often in place of appropriate discussion about her politics. I don’t want my daughter to feel that she is reduced to her appearance. In fact, I don’t want it to be more than a small part of her self-concept. Unfortunately with all of the messages in the media, from her peers, and unconsciously perhaps even from me, she will likely judge her body and find it lacking as so many women do. I will try to be conscious of the message I send and I am aware that even my subtle grimaces at my reflection or an attempt at dieting will have an impact, but I can’t keep the messages away altogether.

Third, inequality exists. It is all around us and many people are discriminated against for different reasons. By being a girl and someday a woman, my daughter will have certain expectations and limitations placed on her. She may surpass or defy some of these, but not without being intuitively aware that double standards exist. I worry about the power of self-fulfilling prophecies and the limitations she may place on herself.

Of course I could come up with more points, but as I’m tired and I fear that I will quickly be going off on a rambling rant, I do also want to say that there are wonderful things about being a girl/woman. I hope to share these things with her and I hope to instill a high level of self-respect and self-esteem in her so that she can be a conscientious consumer of the messages she receives and she can someday feel strong enough to stand up against what she feels is wrong and for what she feels is right. I want her to be her own person, dream big, and work hard to attain her goals. I want to do my itty bitty part to make changes to the world she’ll grow up in and I hope that she will continue on in similar pursuits. I don’t plan on raising my daughter in a bubble or instilling a sense of fear or hypervigilance in her. I just want her to feel secure in herself and her place in the world.

Another Sophie Kinsella Novel

I had 2 Sophie Kinsella novels downloaded for my trip to Mexico, but I never got the chance to read either there. I recently decided to read them back to back instead of adding more to my credit card bill. If you regularly follow this blog, you probably read about how I am always internally yelling at the main characters to just come clean with whatever lie they keep getting more and more tangled up in. This time, it was a bit different.

I just finished I Got Your Number. I thought it was going to be entertaining, as usual, but also following the same formula. It started out with a lie/cover up and I assumed that would play out through the whole book. However, it was wrapped up by the halfway point and the story continued in another direction. Maybe it’s the hormones, but I found myself caught up in the love story. Maybe it’s because I met J through online dating and we spent hours trading MSN messages in the beginning; maybe that allowed me to truly know the excitement of waiting for a new message to pop up and smiling to myself as I thought of a clever or flirtatious reply. Whatever the reason, I was eager to keep reading and find out how it ended, so much so that I went to bed at 10pm on Saturday but did not go to sleep until I finished the book at 12:30am (even though I was quite tired at 10!). I think that the last Sophie Kinsella book I read, The Undomestic Goddess, didn’t provide the same enjoyment because it became too much of the same and it had the unfortunate chance of being the last Sophie Kinsella book I had read. I think I had started to doubt that I would continue to like her books as much, but I Got Your Number renewed my interest. Still, it’s a light read and I would recommend it if that’s what you’re looking for rather than a literary masterpiece.

Feeling Scared

I have been blissful during this pregnancy and we were told that everything looked good at our anatomy scan. However, baby girl was all curled up so they couldn’t get all of the heart and spine measurements they needed. I am scheduled to have another ultrasound on Monday. I wasn’t worried though.

This morning, a nurse from my maternity clinic called. She said that I have a low lying placenta. I asked if that was related to placenta previa and she said that previa is when the placenta completely covers the cervix, but mine is just low. In most cases (90-99% depending on what you read/hear), the placenta will move up and out of the danger zone later in pregnancy. So they are scheduling another ultrasound for 28-30 weeks. I love the opportunity to see my baby again, but after I got off the phone with the nurse, I started researching and got scared. Chances are baby and I are going to be just fine, and even if I do develop placenta previa, that’s likely still the case. But reading about worse case scenarios and complications has me freaked out.

Even though I haven’t had any spotting so far, I am once again scared about the possibility of bleeding. I was told that if I have any bleeding, I need to go to the hospital right away. Now I have fears of bleeding in the night and not waking up until it’s too late. I know I’m catastrophizing, but my mind always goes to worst case scenarios at least once. If I were to start bleeding and they put me on bed rest, that obviously affects my job. So I think I should probably come up with a contingency plan with my boss about who will take over my clients if I have to leave before I’m able to wrap things up/at short notice. I hope I never have to put that plan into action, but I think discussing it would be smart.

My mom is away at a medical conference right now, but I texted her the news. She wrote back saying that the doctor will watch me closely. I’m glad that he will, but it is scary that he now needs to. I just really want my baby to make it to a live birth and hopefully be healthy and full-term.

Take your final guesses; it’s time to reveal the baby’s sex!

** Disclaimer: Over the top pregnancy-related gushing post **

We found out the baby’s sex on Friday, but I had a plan for how I was going to announce it to coworkers on Monday, so I held off on posting this until now.

We didn’t have a gender reveal party since we have absolutely no family in the city or even the province and we only have a scattering of close friends here. Instead, I whipped up some cake pops and put them in the staff room at my work as I am friendly with many people at work and I wanted to do something fun to tell people what we’re having.

I dyed the cake and icing with food coloring and used vibrant green candy melts for coating. Here are some pictures of the finished cake pops:

So as you can see, we’re having a GIRL!!!!! I am excited and absolutely love the idea of a little girl and getting to experience things like prom dress shopping, tea parties, mother-daughter spa days, wedding planning, etc. I love girly girl stuff! Of course she may be more of a tomboy, but it’s all good. At the same time, part of me is sad to miss out on the experiences of having a little boy. But I can’t have them both since I’m only carrying one baby.

Now that we know, it feels like the real planning and preparing for baby can begin. On the weekend, we picked up our travel system: Britax B-Agile with Britax B-Safe car seat. Next weekend, we plan to pick up the crib and dresser that we want, the Baby Cache Montana in Driftwood. They are even on sale right now. I love it when progress is being made and things are coming together!