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Catherine Zeta-Jones, workplace reformer
Last week Catherine Zeta-Jones, who is eight months
pregnant, performed at the Oscars. What a surprise that behind her
Hollywood glitz is a working mom who challenges workplace stereotypes.
Image is so important at the workplace, and the image
of a pregnant woman does not scream workplace success. In fact,
the image of a pregnant woman usually induces quiet musings about
whether she'll ever work again after the baby comes.
Hollywood is the extreme of this problem because in
Hollywood one's job is to look good. But Hollywood is also the crowd
that sets the tone for what is socially acceptable, so it's a big
deal that Catherine stood in front of the most important audience
of her career and did her job: She sang a song.
Working through one's pregnancy is difficult enough,
but Catherine's job is to look sexy and confident. Whether she did look sexy is up for discussion (the ranks were divided at
the Oscar party I attended). But Catherine did make serious progress
toward making people comfortable around working women who are pregnant.
And her presence on stage should make the world a little more comfortable
with pregnant women wielding power.
My own version of fat Hollywood happened one week
before my baby was due. An editor called me to say the magazine
(not Bankrate) needed a photo of me. They wanted to set up a photo
shoot that week. I went ballistic. I said no way. I reminded the
editor that I was 45 pounds overweight. I vowed to never answer
the phone again until the baby came.
But I did answer the phone again. And again. Because
the editor called relentlessly. When I could feel myself starting
to cry (it happened all the time during the pregnancy), I agreed
to a photo session a week after my baby's due date.
The baby came, and in the biggest rip-off of my life,
I lost only five pounds during delivery.
The day of the shoot was day three of no sleep, and
day four of no shower. The stylist called to ask me to bring shirts
in three different colors. I said, "I have one shirt that fits,
and it's dirty, and I'll be wearing it."
Ever since then, I have admonished myself for going
to the photo shoot before I lost the pregnancy weight. But now I'm
thinking maybe I wasn't so stupid. In the ideal world all women
would feel comfortable being their fat, pregnant selves at work.
Take note, though: Catherine made a point of mentioning
her hormonal imbalance during her acceptance speech. She mentioned
hormones to make sure everyone knows she is not JUST fat, but fat
because she's pregnant. Surely a publicist advised this tactic,
and I think it's a good one. For better or worse, people perceive
fat and pregnant as much more acceptable than just fat.
Recently, I told my editor I've lost all my pregnancy
weight and asked if we could take new photos.
He said; "I think you look like a babe in your
photo."
When he told me that, I thought to myself, "He
is full of crap." But that was before the Oscars. I thought
Catherine looked good. Fat. But confident. So maybe I exude confidence,
too. If only I could write a caption below my photo that mentions
something about hormones ...
-- Posted: March 31, 2003
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