Yummy Mummy, you sure are sexy. And sex is the only real power women have ever been allowed so I get how important that is to you.. to us.
Yummy Mummy, you are fashionable. In fact you are your very own fashion trend – women aspire to be you, but what I really meant is that you are up with the latest fashions and you know how to wear them. I get that too, following fashion trends makes you belong, it means you’re young.
Yummy Mummy, but you’re not usually as young as you look. That’s part of the celebration of you, Yummy Mummy. You’re a mother and you’ve still got it. Look at you. Anyone can be a super model at 26, but 36, hey you’re fabulous.
Yummy Mummy, how’d you get your pre-baby figure back so quickly? You are fit, healthy, and energetic – nothing slows you down. The median age of first-time mothers might be rising but it doesn’t mean you’re old Mummies.
Yummy Mummy, your baby is as cute as a button in its designer labels, who knew children would make such great accessories? Hey, you’re only kidding. You’re devoted to your children.
Yummy Mummy, you can do it all. You’re a walking advertisement for your own success. You must be clever, and well-organised, and disciplined to look this good all the time. Seeing as motherhood isn’t taken seriously as a job you’ve got to somehow make sure they don’t underestimate you.
Yummy Mummy, you are rich, there’s no doubt about it.
Yummy Mummy, you gave us something else apart from the frumpy hausfrau to want to be, yeah its liberation of a sort. Funny how we don’t feel so free.
Yummy Mummy, you’re in competition with all the other Mummies. You don’t seem to need friends. Anyway we cause less trouble if we’re fighting amongst ourselves, don’t we? Hate to have a little mother revolution here or something.
But Yummy Mummy, there’s just one thing I don’t know about you – are you happy?
blue milk 
great post – I always hated that label, yummy mummy. it’s infantalizing.
Thanks for the feedback thinking girl!
I’ve just found out this post has been tagged at http://finallyfeminism101.blogspot.com/2007/04/feminism-friday-roundup_28.html for “Feminism Friday”. I will certainly try and tag for this in future.
Many thanks for the link.
[…] now, it has morphed into this “doable” angle. It makes me think of the Yummy Mummy phenomenon or the NC-17 version that is MILF. (Both labels are serious objectifiers – why are […]
[…] hasn’t tagged this as Friday Feminism, but I’m going to add it to the roundup anyway: Yummy Mummy, Are You Happy? (This led me to two of bluemilk’s I missed last month – Work and Family – A Very Unequal […]
[…] Makeovers’ or plastic surgery aimed at mothers. It’s happening in Australia too. The ‘Yummy Mummy Conspiracy’ is after you and it is not about making you feel sexy – it is about making you feel bad about your […]
[…] thing is so insidious, you think you’ve escaped it because you’ve rejected the Yummy Mummy thing and then what do you know, turns out you’re just buying into another kind of motherhood ideal. […]
[…] 3, 2009 by blue milk Interesting article here from Sue Goodwin and Kate Huppatz unpacking the yummy mummy trend. Unfortunately it is too many big ideas for one little article, but worth a read all the […]
[…] changed), and motherhood is but one of the aspects examined. Betty Draper is the original yummy mummy – gorgeous, domestically accomplished, and married with two children to the show’s […]
[…] this essay owes a great deal to Blue Milk’s dead-on Yummy Mummy post; here’s hoping to approach its thoughtfulness and […]
[…] Apparently Madonna’s new album, MDNA includes lyrics she wrote referring to the “life of an ex-wife”, having “no time”, “doing ten things at once”, “custody” and “pre-nups”. I know some people find it grating when hugely wealthy celebrities talk about their difficulties with juggling work and family but I gotta say I find this aspect a little more refreshing than the rest of their ‘yummy mummy’ caper. […]
I’d love for you to visit http://www.yummymummyclub.ca/who-yummy-mummy. You may be surprised.
[…] ungefähr analog zu den Berliner Latte-Macchiato-Müttern. Einen anderen Zugang hingegen hat Bluemilk, die unter dem Label “Yummy Mummy” auf die Problematik von u. a. […]
Mothers who stay home to raise their children will never meet with the approval of women like you no matter what they do or how they appear. If they seem disorganized and disheveled, no doubt they incur your condescending judgment as well. I am thrilled that I stayed home to raise my daughter and thankful that I was able to. I even homeschooled her – along with a relative’s daughter of the same age. They both turned out to be amazing and accomplished young women. I wouldn’t trade those wonderful years with them for the world. And I didn’t waste my precious time bemoaning what society did or didn’t think of me as a woman or a mother. Life is too short.
Yet this obviously hit a chord with you. Why is that if you don’t care? Plus I think you misread bluemilk’s post, she’s not in the habit of dissing mothers, she’s asking is the whole “Yummy Mummy” thing – and it’s not a stay at home or homeschooling mum thing at all – is worth it. Read the post again it doesn’t mention stay at home mums or homeschooling.
I’m not sure why you think I’m attacking stay-at-home mothers.. this is not about attacking mothers, this is about attacking a marketing image being sold to mothers for us to aspire to.
Probably she is. Why would she not be?
[…] airbrushed images on magazine covers are actually of real people. It’s the stupid idea of the yummy mummy. What? I have to be an organic, earth mothering, homeschooler AND sexy […]