Pooch

OK, now I know what you mean. It is called a pannus (apron in Latin, I believe) when it gets very big, particularly if the person loses a lot of weight after it forms. I think it forms because the connective tissue (yes, more fascia) between the skin and fat, and the next layer in, which is the rectus abdominus sheath, stretches and breaks. Pregnancy would be the main cause, because the lower belly stretches more than the upper part of the abdomen, but some men have them too.

Tattoos below the navel become very stretched and distorted after a pregnancy. I have seen a Youtube video of time lapse photos of a woman's belly growing during the pregnancy and reversion afterwards. It is that low part, down near the pubes, where the pooch forms, that expands the most ,makes the tattoo distorted afterwards, and creates the pooch.

As we age our connective tissue becomes thinner and less resilient. Hence face wrinkles, batwings instead of upper arms, and drooping boobs. This is simply what happens, particularly if you have been overweight in your younger years and lose weight. The connective tissue can spring back to a degree, but I think as we age it doesn't spring back as readily.

I saw a television program recently about the cosmetic surgery industry in LA. It seems that there are so many people who have had 'work done', that the community's perception of normal has changed. Not only do they see ' beautiful young person' bodies and faces in the media and on billboards. These visually altered people *are* the people in the crowd. An enormous number of people want to conform to norm that they see on tele and in the ads too. It is like they want to be like the celebrities. They want to be *in* the fantasy. Unaltered people fall for this community fantasy too, and consequently feel ugly. The more people who have 'work done' , the more people who don't have appearance enhancing surgery are becoming the odd ones out! This is all a bit too George Orwell for me. It creeps me right out.

So, next time you see a shapely woman who has no indentation around her waist or above her navel, with her whole belly and/or thighs so smooth and dent free that you could land a very tiny plane on it, you will know that she has had some liposuction so she can look like all her friends and her heroes and goddesses. She will look like the women in the celeb magazines because she too has had all the connective tissue severed between her skin and her rectus abdominus muscles and has had subcutaneous fat sucked out. Her skin will never actually cling to her body ever again.

Yes, she too is on the surgical treadmill, because she doesn't have any glue holding her belly skin to the muscle layer under it (which you still have). Her belly skin is like a lycra t-shirt. When the t-shirt ages and the lycra breaks down, she will need repeated tummy tucks to remove folds of skin as they descend and expand around her torso, or flap in the breeze. Eventually, like Cher, her skin may be so tight that her skin will pull with movement.

Yes, I have one of those pooches too, It forms a fold a wide floppy 'eave' over my pubes. It pushes my knickers down at the front, so the back tends to fall down too. Sigh. I think the pooch is the reason why many women swear by Granny knickers which sit up at or near the waist. I wear my dance skirts just below the navel, so pooch is covered. No, don't worry, I am not ready for my whole pooch to shimmy for the crowd!! ;-)

Yes, it is a bit visually challenging, having a pooch. Even I would admit that. However, as the disadvantages of getting old go, it is not on my list of really worrying changes. My attempting to accept my pooch is about my learning to accept me as I am, not as a veneer of how I want the world to see me. It is also about not concerning myself if others judge me for it. What business is it of theirs anyway?

I really think judgements about other people's bodies and our own body is about confronting our own ageing and mortality. It is about fear of dying. It is therefore about survival, and is therefore governed by the reptilian part of our brain, which we don't have control over. Being concerned about our own survival is normal, natural and essential. We just have to put up with some of the self-criticism that goes with it, label pooch (and other visual signs of ageing) self-criticism as irrelevant to survival , and love ourselves and others as we all are, with all our imperfections, physical and otherwise.

If you live in LA, then even if the 'beauty' of others does your head in and draws you to the cosmetic surgeon, the rules about loving others and self they way they are, are still the same.

That has to be the recipe for happiness.

I wonder how high the average middle aged Californian butt will be in fifty years' time?

BTW, there is already a joke about the bearded woman who had too many tummy tucks.;-)

Oh, we are a strange species. No wonder all the passengers in all those space ships that have already visited the earth, have gone back home again! Usually at high speed!

Oooo, this is getting a little uncomfortable. I do hope that no Members have been offended by my levity in the face of women who are taking the drastic step of having their body altered surgically so they will feel more beautiful.

I confess that The Beauty Myth by Naomi Wolf has been one of the main influences in the development of my attitudes to beauty and its price. I know that some women will go to almost any lengths to feel more beautiful. Cosmetic surgery can be a life saving step for some (I know one woman personally) but so often the insecurities and self-hatred are not excised along with the unwanted tissue and the woman remains dissatisfied or becomes dissatisfied with some other body part.

It is not all about the body. It is all so sad.