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The pressure to always put the way you feel about something into a hot take or Tweet that accurately conveys your thoughts and feelings without causing offence to anyone else and covering all areas and ramifications of what you might unintentionally drift into is... exhausting.
So honestly I'd love to say that when I saw the pictures of Carrie Johnson and the world leaders' partners crowded around her and Boris Johnson's son, Wilfred at the G7, I just thought, 'Ughhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh aghhhhhhhhhh realllllly, ughhhhhh...' But I'll try a little harder.
Luckily I wasn't the only one with feelings - and lots of women articulated their thoughts over the weekend too... Though also admitted they were confused and weren't always sure where to start.
The point I'm trying to make is that anything with motherhood, feminism, sexism, politics, children or portrayals of women is always difficult to unpick - and something that intersects all of those things, well sometimes you just want to RT with a FFS and scream into a pillow and I don't know if I can accurately spell out all the reasons why. Other than to say, it was just SO ANNOYING.
Firstly, yes, it was disheartening and tiring (maybe also a reason for the grunting) to see amidst a political meeting of the world's biggest leaders to discuss covid recovery, climate change and trade, the main pictures gaining traction were pictures of the 'other halves' 'cooing' (as it was often written) over baby Wilfred. What does that say about our ability - or the media's belief in our capacity to - focus on difficult political conversations?
It also appeared to be the main thing the women at the event were allowed to do. Apologies if I missed other things that were on their programme, but if I'm not really aware with them, that's kind of the point.
It was tiring because it showed so starkly that the 'other halves' were overwhelmingly female - not on the 'main billing'.
It was tiring because it felt trope-ish and reductive - women, they love kids, they're mums etc etc.
It was tiring because it just had a sense of, 'Meanwhile, in the less important room, the women were...' Except that sentence then finished with '...they were looking after the kids'.
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It was tiring because while we obsess over footballing WAGs again and anyone who's been invited as an 'other half' corporate event knows, this is just part of a wider picture that is happening day in, day out, where women are the distraction, the side note and the ones occupied by the kids in the other room from the action.
As writer and podcaster Sam Baker posted, 'I can’t help feeling I woke up in the 1950s'.
If it had been a respectful nod to the role of motherhood as an important, with an economic benefit (see, you can start to wade into some difficult waters) or a comment on the fact that childcare is so expensive, they had to bring Wilfred along for the ride (oh, we're wading into the Boris can't afford childcare stories now...) then that would be one thing. If Carrie was giving a talk about the intersection of motherhood, feminism and the benefits of that to the economy in covid recovery, that (given Grazia and Pregnant Then Screwed's campaign) would be interesting - though have its own issues. Such as, if there's something to be said about parenting, could a man not do it?
But all of the above is a moot point, because actually, the picture was just a nice lil handout piece of distraction that said everything you need to know about what people like to see and read about when it comes to parenting and women. And ultimately it was a handout from our government - so everything about the main message they wanted to put out there from these important meetings, and the view of motherhood and women.
So, yes, it's 2021 and ughhhhhhhhhhhhh, right?