{"id":299,"date":"2010-07-16T09:22:08","date_gmt":"2010-07-16T09:22:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/thinplaces\/2010\/07\/what-im-reading-books-unsqueezed-by-margot-starbuck.html"},"modified":"2010-07-16T09:22:08","modified_gmt":"2010-07-16T09:22:08","slug":"what-im-reading-books-unsqueezed-by-margot-starbuck","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/2010\/07\/what-im-reading-books-unsqueezed-by-margot-starbuck.html","title":{"rendered":"What I’m Reading: Books: Unsqueezed by Margot Starbuck"},"content":{"rendered":"


\n\"unsqueezed.jpg\"<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

Margot Starbuck’s<\/a> new book, Unsqueezed: springing free from
\nskinny jeans, nose jobs, highlights and stilettos<\/a>, couldn’t have come at a
\nbetter time.<\/p>\n

First, there was Penny’s question at dinner a few weeks
\nback. “Mom, why do you have bruises on your face?”<\/p>\n

“What do you mean?”<\/p>\n

“There,” she pointed under my left eye, “and there,” the
\nright eye.<\/p>\n

She wasn’t trying to be funny. And I wasn’t amused.<\/p>\n

Here’s the announcement: I’m pregnant (13 weeks, due in
\nJanuary, and for those of you who read Monday’s post<\/a>, don’t worry, I’m not
\ncurrently consuming a daily glass of wine although my caffeine consumption
\nstill leaves something to be desired)! Wonderful news, certainly. We are
\ndelighted that baby Becker #3 will join our family. The pregnancy has gone well
\nso far.<\/p>\n

But. This fatigue thing, that leads to those “bruises” under
\nmy eyes. Not so fun. And then there’s my lack of morning sickness. A blessing.
\nI know. I know. But whenever I am pregnant, I seem to have the opposite
\nproblem, which is to say, my body tells me to consume every food item in sight.
\nSeven full meals a day. All of which is to say, I’m tired. And I feel (and,
\nquite frankly, look) fat.<\/p>\n

Which brings me back to Unsqueezed<\/i>. This book revolves around a pretty simple
\npremise. Margot wants us to stop thinking of our bodies as objects to be viewed
\nand start understanding them as subjects with a purpose. She asks, what are
\nbodies for<\/i>? <\/p>\n

And she states her answer pretty simply. Our bodies are
\nmeant for relationships, with God, and with one another. And yet, “Our culture
\nhas thoroughly and effectively marketed the myth that women’s bodies exist for
\nno higher purpose than to be viewed<\/i>…
\nAs if we have no awareness that we’ve been made to walk with the Lord in a
\nvibrant, living relationship of love and service, we live, and eat, and shop,
\nand dress as if our bodies were meant for the visual enjoyment of others.” <\/p>\n

There are a host of problems with the common cultural perspective: “What is
\nparticularly sinister about our culture’s fixation with beauty, and with my
\npersonal one, is that it keeps our eyes turned upon ourselves.” Not to mention
\nthe fact that life tends to bring with it the impossibility of maintaining
\nbodies that (from a purely objective perspective) visually please others. The
\nthing is, though, bodies that are used for the service of others become beautiful.
\nIt’s a different beauty than that of plastic surgery and supermodels. It’s the
\nbeauty that comes from relationships rather than objectification. The beauty
\nthat comes from love. (See “Arms Like My Grandmother’s<\/a>” for some of my thoughts
\non beauty and aging and love.)<\/p>\n

So what is this body of mine for<\/i> right now? It’s for carrying a child into the world. It’s for
\nserving my family. It’s for laughing and enjoying time with my husband and my
\nfriends. It’s for thinking and writing and communicating. It’s for becoming
\nbeautiful by being  <\/span>for<\/i> other people. <\/p>\n

For any Christian woman who wants to take a few steps away
\nfrom all those self-critical thoughts about her appearance, Unsqueezed<\/i> is for
\nyou. <\/p>\n

(Margot has been a guest blogger for our Perfectly Human series. To read her essay on Transparency, click here<\/a>.) <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Margot Starbuck’s new book, Unsqueezed: springing free from skinny jeans, nose jobs, highlights and stilettos, couldn’t have come at a better time. First, there was Penny’s question at dinner a few weeks back. “Mom, why do you have bruises on your face?” “What do you mean?” “There,” she pointed under my left eye, “and there,”…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":88,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-299","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-faith","category-what-im-reading"],"yoast_head":"\nWhat I'm Reading: Books: Unsqueezed by Margot Starbuck - Thin Places<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/2010\/07\/what-im-reading-books-unsqueezed-by-margot-starbuck.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"What I'm Reading: Books: Unsqueezed by Margot Starbuck - Thin Places\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Margot Starbuck’s new book, Unsqueezed: springing free from skinny jeans, nose jobs, highlights and stilettos, couldn’t have come at a better time. 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Two major life experiences have shaped her writing and her faith\u00e2\u20ac\u201dcaring for her mother-in-law as she battled cancer and welcoming her daughter Penny into the world after she was diagnosed at birth with Down syndrome. Both experiences expanded and enriched her understanding of what it means to be human and to receive each and every person as a gift.\u00c2\u00a0 A graduate of Princeton University and Princeton Theological Seminary, she is the author of Penelope Ayers: A Memoir, and the forthcoming A Good and Perfect Gift (Bethany House). Her essays have appeared in First Things, The Philadelphia Inquirer, The Christian Century, ChristianityToday.com, and Bloom, among other online venues.","sameAs":["http:\/\/amyjuliabecker.com"],"url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/author\/amyjuliabecker"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/299","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/88"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=299"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/299\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=299"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=299"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=299"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}