Lecturing mothers is Risky Business

Kudos to Brooke Shields, and shame on Tom Cruise.

Shields is calling attention to a serious problem, and offering solutions. If you don't want to read her book on post-partum depression ("Down Came the Rain"), you can read the op-ed she has in the NY Times today. It's her rebuttal to Cruise nosing into her business on the Today Show last week. As Shields points out in her essay, it is inappropriate and offensive for Cruise to publicly lecture a mother on any aspect of pregnancy, pre- or post-partum. Mothers deserve all the support and love that men can give. It is man's duty to minimize the uterine burden carried by women. If any woman, like Shields, has the courage to lend her painful tale to the public dialogue, we should take heed from her words. She's raising awareness of a profound, hidden sadness, and calling on physicians to screen and treat post-partum depression. She's lending her strength to other women suffering in silence, afraid to speak up, afraid to get help, scared to look like maternal failures. She's saying that she took medications, and it helped her; not urging everyone else to do the same. All she wants is for the issue to be properly understood, prevented, and treated. How can anyone take a contrary position? By distorting her words, and displaying a shallow, if not empty, reserve of compassion and understanding, Cruise is standing against Shields' efforts. Baffling. I am not the first to recognize that Cruise has clearly gone 'round the bend, complaining about the media, psychiatry, anti-depressive medications, glib speech, and seemingly, his own status as a rich superstar. In callously criticizing Shields, Cruise - who, as a father, should know better - he has gone too far. He shows himself to be narrow-minded, uncaring, and cruel, a stark contrast to Shields' brave confessions.

(Photo from http://www.aftonbladet.se/vss/foraldrar/story/0,2789,542361,00.html)

© 2005 by justin michael cresswell