A prep course for the month-long World Cup soccer tournament, a worldwide pheno
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in America have had authority handed to them . They have had to earn it . '' As a nurse , Carol Ann Friedman thought she knew what to expect during her own postpartum recovery : If she had a Cesarean section , she would need eight weeks to heal . If she had a vaginal birth , six weeks . By then , she figured , her life would be back to normal . She would be rested , ready to return to work , a djusted to her baby , with the household running smoothly . Right ? Wrong . `` I t took me much longer than eight weeks , '' she recalls . `` I felt better about the eighth month . '' Having spent her career nurturing others back to health , the irony of the situation didn't escape Friedman , a certified lactation consu ltant in Pasadena , Calif. . The vast majority of women would categorize having a baby as a joyous event , full of rewards and moments of sheer delight . But wh en the tears flow , it 's often because society 's benchmark for when new mother s should be recovered six weeks to eight weeks is unrealistic for many . `` A jo ke , '' says one woman , aptly . `` Ridiculous , '' says another . `` It 's almo st brutal , '' says Friedman . Scientific studies and new mothers themselves att est to a much longer adjustment period , something akin to a fourth trimester . In a study published last year , researchers found that most women need months m aybe as much as a year to fully recover from childbirth . One month after delive ry , women still complained of breast problems , fatigue , hemorrhoids , poor ap petite , constipation , increased sweating , acne , hand numbness or tingling , dizziness and hot flashes . Three months after delivery , many of these symptoms continue , the study reported , while 40 percent of mothers also reported pain during sexual intercourse , as well as respiratory infections and hair loss at t hree to six months . Even at nine months postpartum , many women said they exper ienced vaginal discomfort and constipation . And 20 percent reported problems re lated to sexual function one year after childbirth , says researcher Dwenda K. G jeringen of the University of Minnesota . Moreover , as many as 10 percent of wo men suffer postpartum depression in the months following childbirth , other rese arch has shown . Postpartum depression is a severe mood disorder linked to chang ing hormones in which stress and fatigue can play a major role . Even without ex periencing such a serious postpartum illness , `` Recovery from childbirth often requires more than the six weeks traditionally allotted , '' Gjeringen says . B aby is now 2 months old and signs are everywhere that Mother should be up to spe ed . At six or eight weeks , disability payments usually stop a not-so-subtle hi nt that a woman should now be ready to return to work . Yet , according to Gjeri ngen 's study , the postpartum adjustment period is especially hard for women wh o return to the work force about half of all new mothers soon after childbirth . The average working woman takes eight weeks off for childbirth , according to 9 to 5 , the National Association of Working Women . At six weeks , the last visi t with the obstetrician takes place . That is when , according to medical textbo oks , the uterus has returned to its non-reproductive state . Using that as the benchmark of recovery , physicians pronounce most of their patients fit and read y to resume sexual relations . Never mind that the typical patient is still 20 p ounds overweight , exhausted and sore . There is also a tacit assumption in many quarters that the mother should have her baby on some kind of schedule at six w eeks . After all , when are the in-laws ever wrong ? In truth , the postpartum a djustment period differs greatly among women , and recovery simply cannot be pre dicted or planned , experts say . `` A lot of it depends on whether the baby is an easy baby or not , '' says Sandy Hill , the owner of a Southern California pa rent-care service called After the Stork . For example , some babies have health problems , develop colic , are hard to feed , sleep fitfully or are ill-tempere d . `` Women often say , ` What 's wrong with me ? I 'm not adjusting . Why is t his so hard ? ' But it 's usually because the baby is a difficult baby , '' she says . ( Begin optional trim ) Physically , too , recovery varies widely . `` Th e physical recovery is usually much slower than what people expect , '' says psy chologist Georgiana G. Rodiger , a mother of five and founder of the Rodiger Cen ter in Pasadena . `` Childbirth is a much more traumatic especially for a first birth than most people care to describe . And one of the worst parts is you don' t get sleep . That goes on for months . '' Some new mothers also feel pressure t o lose all their added weight a couple months after childbirth . If a woman is r eturning to work at six weeks , she 's lucky if her regular clothes even fit , F riedman says . `` Most of us have body-image issues at that time , '' she says . `` But it 's very natural not to have lost the weight at that point . '' ( End optional trim ) Postpartum recovery is clearly on the fast track these days , be ginning from the moment of birth . It is common now for women who have an uncomp licated vaginal birth to be discharged in one day and women who undergo C-sectio ns in three days . And , under some insurance policies , childbirth is just a pi t stop : Women with vaginal births go home in eight to 12 hours . `` These mothe rs are still in a fog , '' Friedman says . `` I 'm trying to tell them how to ch ange a diaper and they 're saying ` What ? ' ' ' The trend in early discharge an d a light-speed postpartum recovery sometimes seems like a backlash to the days a generation ago when new mothers spent five to seven days in the hospital and c ame home to a supportive extended family and a neighborhood full of casserole-be aring , stay-at-home moms . `` In the old days , the mother was in bed and every one said , ` Oh , that 's ridiculous this isn't an illness , ' ' ' notes Susan , a Los Angeles woman who asked that her full name not be used . `` Then it becam e a thing of who can get out the door the quickest . '' New mothers who refuse t o get with the program are subject to ridicule , says Lola Clark Tirre , a herba list and mother of three who lives in San Clemente , Calif. . `` I don't think i t 's respected if a woman says she is going to stay home and bond with her baby for several weeks . People think you are kind of kooky . '' Not many women have the luxury of staying home and cocooning , says Linda Juergens , director of the New York-based National Association of Mothers ' Centers , a network of non-pro fit discussion groups . `` Certain societies have ways of relieving new mothers of duties as she recovers and having a mentoring period with other mothers . In our society , we have nothing built in to support a new mother . The extended fa mily is gone . '' Part of the solution to the cultural crisis facing today 's ne w moms may be a return to old customs . For example , new moms are increasingly joining breast-feeding or parenting organizations , says Friedman , the owner of two stores that carry lactation equipment and clothing . At her Mothers with St yle store in Glendale , Calif. , women meet weekly for support . Women are not o nly helped individually , but a forum is created for them to air their concerns , says Juergens , of the National Assocation of Mothers ' Centers . `` As a nati onal organization , our hope is to raise the consciousness among people about th ese issues , '' she says . `` We want to expand the maternal voice and get women to feel entitled to make their needs and wants known . '' Now that Paula Jones has filed her lawsuit accusing Bill Clinton of sexual hara ssment , America once again is tossing around the word `` bimbo , '' using it to describe Jones in a pejorative way , usually in defense of the president . I ca n't imagine anyone hasn't heard about the case . Jones contends that when Clinto n was Arkansas governor and she was on the state payroll , she was brought to me et him in a hotel room , where he dropped his pants and propositioned her . Jone s said she refused and left , but that hasn't kept people from referring to her as a bimbo , though some people who say they knew her as a `` party girl '' migh t think the term is apt . So the word bimbo is back , just as it was used to des cribe Tonya Harding , Gennifer Flowers , or Donna Rice ( remember Gary Hart and the good ship `` Monkey Business '' ? ) . For a country that is being accused mo re and more of embracing attitudes that are politically correct , this kind of l inguistic behavior strikes me as a serious lapse , and one that isn't positive . It seems that the nation has come to accept the term bimbo without considering the connotations it has . Perhaps it 's best to define exactly what a bimbo is . Webster 's New World Dictionary lists three slang definitions , of which the th ird is most pertinent to the current usage : `` a sexually promiscuous woman . ' ' The second definition `` a silly or stupid person : used especially of a woman '' often seems to be implicit when people speak of bimbos , too . After talking with people about what they consider the essence of , well , call it bimbosity , I think you also need to add that the popular notion of a bimbo involves someo ne who dresses provocatively , usually in tight , revealing clothing . Nowadays , I can't think of anyone who uses the first definition , deemed old slang by th e dictionary : `` a guy , fellow . '' In fact , the whole notion of a bimbo seem s to be quite gender-specific . There seems to be no male equivalent . Would you , for example , think of Joey Buttafuoco as a male bimbo ? How about Fabio ? Se e what I mean ? Sure , men have been called hunks , but that term seems pretty p assive when compared to what we mean when we refer to a woman as a bimbo . Think for a moment of the TV commercial that portrays women leering at a bare-chested construction worker . The guy , I 'm told , is a hunk . But he 's not dealing i n sexuality ; he 's just taken off his shirt because he 's perspiring . On the o ther hand , do you think the women doing the leering are bimbos ? Maybe yes , ma ybe no , right ? Then there is the term `` stud , '' which certainly carries a s exual connotation . Yet it isn't the same kind of pejorative that bimbo is . I c an't imagine any women considering bimbo a positive description , but there are plenty of men who would welcome being called a stud . And we better forget about the word womanizer , which has such an elite connotation to it you almost pictu re someone in a pin-striped suit and wing-tips . Think of it this way : JFK was a womanizer ; Judith Exner was a bimbo . Note the difference . All of which make s me wonder exactly how far we have come toward gender equality . The word bimbo reinforces the stereotype of a woman using sexuality to promote herself . That there is no equivalent male term is significant , but not as important as the fa ct that we seem willing to use the word bimbo unquestioningly . Women use it , t oo , including some women who pride themselves on promoting feminist equality . That is perhaps the ultimate irony , for it pretty effectively undercuts the not ion of women being held to the same standards as men , and vice versa . Some of the newer feminist writers surely would criticize the notion of women ever being bimbos . Among this group , dubbed the `` do-me feminists '' by Esquire magazin e , are those who believe women finally are acting sexually demanding in much th e same way men traditionally have . They would find the notion of sexually promi scuous behavior to be just fine , without any of the negative connotations that the word bimbo would conjure up . But society seems ill at ease with the idea of a woman who leers at men , dresses to enhance her sexuality , or even enjoys th e pleasures of the flesh . Hence the continued use of the word bimbo in a way th at can only be considered demeaning , not only to the woman being labeled , but to women in general . Thinking about it that way , we can be certain the double standard is alive and well , despite all the efforts by women and men to try to level the playing field for both genders . What is perhaps surprising , however , is the rancor Jones has stirred through her lawsuit . People across a broad sp ectrum have come to Clinton 's defense . Even Gennifer Flowers , who claims to h ave had a longtime affair with Clinton , says Jones ' story doesn't ring true . Based on that , Jones might be the only person I can think of who could be accus ed of giving bimbos a bad name . LOS ANGELES When I was a kid , I stole a bag of doughnuts once from a grocery s tore . They were glazed doughnuts in a brown bag . I did it because we were poor and I was hungry , and because it was an exciting thing to do . I hid the dough nuts inside a jacket and sidled out of the store as casually as I could , but I was a clumsy thief and the grocer , a man named Fred Barnes , saw me . He shoute d `` Hey ! '' and came after me , red-faced and snorting fire , and cornered me in an alley about a block away . I made a run at him to try knocking him out of the way , but he caught me by the nape of the neck , marched me back to the stor e and took my name and address . He said he 'd be notifying my parents and juven ile authorities and I would be catching everyone 's hell in just a few days . Wh ich brings me to Aldo Vega . He stole a box of cookies from a place called Charl ie 's Market and also was a clumsy thief . The owner of the market , Michael Kim , saw him . Aldo , a 14-year-old , took off . Kim jumped in his car and caught him three blocks away . Then he shot him . He did it , Kim said , because the bo y with Aldo had a knife . No knife was found , but a screwdriver was later recov ered . He did it , Kim said , because Aldo appeared to be reaching for a weapon . There was no weapon , but Aldo admits hiking up his shirt and reaching into hi s pocket . There was just that damned box of cookies scattered on the sidewalk . No criminal charges were filed against Kim because the kid stole cookies , didn 't he , and Kim feared for his life , didn't he ? Cookie thieves are notorious f or murdering grocers . The case was instantly compared to the killing of 15-year -old Latasha Harlins in Compton , Calif. , three years ago . She was shot dead b y grocer Soon Ja Du after the two had struggled over a $ 1.79 bottle of orange j uice . Du was fined $ 500 and placed on probation . Few killers are granted such an easy way out . Aldo didn't die . The bullet fired from Kim 's .38 missed his heart . The district attorney 's office announced magnanimously that it would n ot file shoplifting charges against him . There are similarities between the sho otings of Latasha and Aldo . Both guns were fired by Korean Americans , though L atasha was black and Aldo is Latino . Both shootings were set in motion by the t heft of items worth less than $ 2 . Los Angeles District Attorney Gil Garcetti s aid no charges would be filed against Kim because no prosecutable crime occurred . Commentators , defending Kim 's actions , pointed out that 35 Korean American owners of small businesses have been shot in L.A. in the past year . He had a r ight not to become No. 36 . But Chicano activist Armando Sotomayor cut through t he statistics and legal justification when he stood on the steps of the Criminal Courts Building and said , `` You don't shoot a 14-year-old boy over a 49-cent box of cookies . '' There are those who see the shooting of a Latino by a Korean as a racial incident . I don't . I see it as a metaphor of the time and place i n which we live , in a society packaged by violence and summarized by clashing r ights . Aldo Vega had no right to steal from the store . Michael Kim had a right to pursue him . Aldo Vega had no right to make a threatening gesture . Michael Kim had a right to defend himself . Rights are endlessly debated in a nation tha t revolves around them . But the debate ends when guns are fired . There are an estimated 200 million firearms in private hands in this country , and arguments are increasingly terminated , and rights defended , by their use . Homeowners sh oot at intruders , car owners shoot at thieves , property owners shoot at trespa ssers .. . and grocery store owners shoot at kids who steal orange juice and coo kies . No one will ever know whether Kim actually feared for his life or was try ing , in his way , to teach a lesson . Give him the benefit of the doubt . He wa s in a state of terror . But I can't help wondering what would have happened to me those many years ago had similar conditions existed . Would Fred Barnes have armed himself , pursued me and shot me dead when I lunged at him ? I doubt it . We were a different world back then , less prone to cause pain and more inclined to weigh the value of a human life against the loss of a grocery product . Barn es took my name , but never turned me in . I lived in fear for weeks that he mig ht , and the fear stamped its message on my life . The grocer taught a lesson wi thout a shot being fired . You didn't shoot a kid over a bag of doughnuts back t hen . Sadly , things have changed . Michael Kim and Aldo Vega , thrust together in the context of petty crime and excessive punishment , will symbolize that cha nge for a long time to come . HARTFORD , Conn. . Visitors to the Wadsworth Atheneum in recent years have been mystified by the increasingly dark , murky appearance of the `` Crucifixion , ' ' a 17th-century masterwork by the great French painter Nicolas Poussin . The wo rk 's spectral shapes shrouded in gloom had over time unaccountably darkened far beyond Poussin 's original , deliberately somber palette . But now , thanks to a two-year conservation project , the once ghostly figures have emerged from sha dowy mists . Viewers can once again see how Poussin , a master storyteller , mad e his characters the crucified Christ on the cross , the Virgin Mary , Mary Magd alen , Roman soldiers casting dice for Christ 's garments , a centurion on a rea ring horse , crucified thieves , a resurrected body dramatically bursting from i ts rocky grave and other characters in the cast at Calvary play off one another like a powerful ensemble on stage . A deeply devout Catholic , Poussin portrayed the crucifixion at the moment of Christ 's death , a tumultuous time when , the New Testament says , the heavens darkened , graves heaved open and bodies of sa ints were raised from the dead . The newly restored painting is being displayed in a before-and-after exhibition called `` Restoring a French Masterpiece : Pous sin 's ` Crucifixion . '' ' Installed in the second-floor Connector Gallery , it runs through July 31 . Treating the nearly 350-year-old painting much like an i ll , elderly patient , chief conservator Stephen Kornhauser and conservator Patr icia Garland first had to diagnose the cause of the baffling darkening effect . The two sleuth-like conservators also unearthed evidence revealing what they bel ieve to be the cause of the painting 's painful surface affliction called `` cup ping , '' a blistering effect in which paint curls up in cup-like patches . To g et to the bottom of the enigmatic darkening process , the Atheneum dispatched th e painting and the two conservators to California to the Getty Conservation Inst itute , a prestigious scientific/diagnostic clinic for ailing artworks . Probing for clues in the painting 's skin and body chemistry , Getty scientists discove red a suspicious , foreign substance , a resin possibly from a tree of the balsa m , pine or spruce families lurking in pigment samples . Such resins were most u nusual for 17th-century paintings . But in the 19th century , the resin copaiva balsam was often rubbed onto paintings to lighten a dark surface , Kornhauser sa ys . Based on the Getty lab 's findings , Garland and Kornhauser theorize that s ome unknown 19th-century restorer tried to lighten the Poussin 's naturally dark surface with copaiva balsam , a common practice of that period , they say . So here at last was the villain of the piece , the guilty agent of the painting 's darkening malaise . `` It looks great for a while , '' Garland explains of the b alsam 's initially lightening effect , `` but then it darkens itself , and it ju st keeps darkening and darkening . '' Before the painting was purchased by the A theneum in 1935 , other unknown hands had tried to lighten the painting 's origi nal dark tones by cleaning it with caustic solutions , Garland and Kornhauser sa y . But that caustic cleaner brought not lighter tones but abrasions to the surf ace . Last summer the conservators began operating on their patient , attempting to restore the splendid old invalid to a condition as close as possible to its original state when Poussin painted it for his friend , the French abbot Jacques Auguste de Thou , a member of the French Parliament . The restoration process w as a struggle not only against the natural ravages of aging , but also against e arlier , abortive attempts in pre-Atheneum days to conserve or brighten the pain ting that was never meant to be bright . ( Begin optional trim ) First , the con servators removed coats of discolored varnish and layers of old retouching . The n , to reconstruct lost areas of paint , they employed a process called `` inpai nting , '' the exacting task of matching colors with the original pigments and r e-creating damaged forms by knitting together fragments of the original that rem ain . As a reference point , the conservators used a 17th-century copy of the wo rk attributed to Antoine Bouzonnet-Stella , a friend of Poussin and an establish ed artist of that period . The copy was especially helpful in understanding the original 's most damaged areas , the conservators say . Borrowed from a Swiss co Download 9.93 Mb. Do'stlaringiz bilan baham: |
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