Body of evidence: it is women who are the most cruel

I was burrowing into one of my assorted pairs of tartan pyjamas (I say “pairs” only because there is a top and a bottom; these never match) the other evening when I remembered one of the few great things about the wintry days of darkest January: I don't have to look at my body.

 

I go from multi-layered daywear to all-encompassing night attire with just a quick hot shower in between. No  time to observe how the silvery track lines of my stretch marks catch the light, or how much closer my nipples appear to be getting to my waist.

 

I don't have to think about how much better I would look if I could just roll my belly fat up to my chest and divide it in half, thereby creating a nice flat stomach and two half-decent boobs. I can just wrap the whole lot in a comfortable lagging jacket of clothes and forget about it until spring.

 

But then I got to thinking about how angry I would be if I read a magazine or heard a mouthy man express similar opinions; how incensed I would be if I heard a woman's body criticised because it showed obvious signs of motherhood or did not confirm to the digitally manipulated images that bombard us from newsstands and screens every day.

 

We give out about the media and fashion industry for holding women to impossibly high standards when it comes to physical appearance, but sometimes I think it is actually women who are the most cruel when it comes to criticism of our bodies.

 

We get together and fantasise about what we would do if got a present of our own personal plastic surgeon and we embark on half-baked diets based on foods beginning with the letter “A” or vegetables grown near the sea, when sometimes all we need to do is look at ourselves with a bit more respect.

 

So the next time I sigh over my stretch marks and saggy boobs, I will remember with pride that they are a record of the three beautiful children I bore, and I will see my thighs not as tree trunks but as the strong limbs that have carried me around this world for the past 40-odd years. I'll see my body as the record of my life.

 

I'll wait until the weather gets a bit warmer though...