No, I Don't Want Your Stretch Mark Cream


I respect a woman with a hustle. There are plenty of work-at-home moms pushing products in order to support their families, and I have nothing but love for them. People do what they have to do, and sometimes they are fortunate enough to do what they love to do, to support their families. But I don't want your stretch mark cream.

I love the greens, the candles, the soaps, the nail wraps, the essential oils.

But I don't want your stretch mark cream.

Stretch marks, for some of us, are inevitable. They are a part of growth in puberty, when our skin stretches to make room for new evidence of womanhood; hips and breasts and thighs that weren't there before.

And they are a part of growing babies, when our skin stretches to accommodate the simplest miracle, the division and multiplication of cells, growing and changing daily to become a real live human being.

Stretch marks are not inherently bad, unattractive, or shameful. And yet, an entire industry revolves around hiding them. Why?

Babies don't usually have stretch marks. Young children don't usually have stretch marks. But young adults do, and grown adults do. It's a sign of growth and maturity, which is perhaps why stretch marks are so feared by our anti-aging culture. If we can pretend we're not aging, we can pretend we'll never die, and chasing after eternal youth is apparently a way to spend a life.

And I realize that while I don't want your stretch mark cream, some women might. And I stand by their right to do what they want with their bodies.

But I have to wonder why. Why must we feel the need to hide any evidence that our bodies have carried our babies? Why are we made to feel like we are so imperfect that we must invest money into unrealistically changing ourselves?

It's one thing to want a stronger, faster, healthier body, and to devote time to daily exercise. It's one thing to add popular powdered greens to your diet in an effort to get some extra nutrition in. It's one thing to decorate your nails or apply some wicked eye shadow art.

But your stretch marks probably aren't going anywhere. Maybe they'll fade, maybe they'll become slightly less pronounced. But they're likely there to stay. And they aren't blemishes. They aren't a sign that something is wrong. They're a normal part of life that signify growth and change.

Your cream might work. It might diminish the "severity" of visible stretch marks. It might even make someone feel better about their body. Interestingly enough, men get stretch marks too, but rarely are these products pitched to them. Perhaps it's because, while there are beauty standards that affect men's self image, it's not quite as much as the programming women regularly receive.

Our bodies are used to sell things, from beer to cars to burgers. Our faces are often obscured, leaving a headless body to be ogled without personalization, without the realization that a woman with a brain and a personality is attached. It has been established that the advertisement of such perfect, airbrushed, unattainable bodies contributes to body image issues and eating disorders, which can plague women for life.

So I don't want your stretch mark cream. I want to love and accept my stretch marks as an inevitable part of puberty and pregnancy. I want all women to be able to do the same.