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,” the
right eye.

She wasn’t trying to be funny. And I wasn’t amused.

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

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

Which brings me back to Unsqueezed. This book revolves around a pretty simple
premise. Margot wants us to stop thinking of our bodies as objects to be viewed
and start understanding them as subjects with a purpose. She asks, what are
bodies for?

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

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

So what is this body of mine for right now? It’s for carrying a child into the world. It’s for
serving my family. It’s for laughing and enjoying time with my husband and my
friends. It’s for thinking and writing and communicating. It’s for becoming
beautiful by being  for other people.

For any Christian woman who wants to take a few steps away
from all those self-critical thoughts about her appearance, Unsqueezed is for
you. 

(Margot has been a guest blogger for our Perfectly Human series. To read her essay on Transparency, click here.)