more on the vein controversy

Madonna vs Timberlake

So if you've read my links (yeah, yeah, like you click on the links, I know), you will know that the response to Madonna's veins go two ways. Either "hells, yeah, she looks like someone who works out like a mofo, and good on her" or "eww, ugly and old." (By the by, another famous person who has very vein-y hands and is mocked for it is Sarah Jessica Parker.)

Now, those of you who know me, know that even before I got new veins to start popping out because I've been working out like a mofo, I have always had very vein-y hands. One would think a person as self-critical as I am would have spent their life being self-conscious about this, but no. I love my hands, and my wrists, and my forearms. They have always been one of my favorite areas of my body. I especially like how they look in pictures. I have this photo of me in the hospital, a day or two after Baby D's birth. I am holding him in one arm, slightly frowning, and pointing at something with the other. (I am sure I was ordering his father to do something, heh, and someone snapped the pic at that moment.) And it's one of my favorite pictures because I love how my hand and wrist look pointing. Yes, I am a lunatic. But you knew that. And it occurs to me by the response to the Madonna pictures, and to SJP, that people probably look at my vein-y hands and think they look ugly and old, but I still don't care. I think they're beautiful.

So my challenge to myself, and to all of you, is this: why can't I (we) feel this way about every part of, and the whole of, my/our body?

xoxo