I just got my August issue of Glamour in the mail. I opened it, as I am wont to do on a lazy Saturday afternoon, expecting to find some sassy make-up tips, perhaps a hot handbag suggestion, possibly even an informational healthcare-related nugget.

But this month, Glamour stepped it up and delivered an out-and-out scolding (and a righteous one!) to it’s readers, entitled “Enough Bashing Other Women’s Motherhood Choices!” Here are some excerpts:

…women continue to judge others’ choices about childbearing: whether to work or not to work, whether or not to seek fertility help, whether or not to have children at all. Work and you’re neglectful; stay at home and you’re “Stepford.”…

Glamour’s mailbox, too, has been flooded with commentaries about women we’ve profiled who’ve chosen motherhood through in vitro fertilization, surrogacy, or international adoption.

Isn’t it time we give other women a break?

We don’t have to agree with everyone’s choices, but we dont have to attack them, either…

As women we now have so many choices that our mothers did not. Let’s stop beating one another up, and foucs on finding our own best paths.

I mean, damn!! Well said, Glamour! Women judging other women for their lifestyle decisions is one of our ugliest, most unproductive habits. Sometimes it feels like we don’t even need any crazy patriarchy, or advertising behemoth, or fashion conglomerate (etc.) to keep us down, we do such a good job of keeping each other down! We can’t be overweight, we can’t be too skinny, we can’t have casual sex, we can’t be abstinent, we can’t wear short skirts, we can’t be afraid of wearing short skirts. It just feels like everywhere you turn there’s a judgment - and, to be fair, Glamour’s Do’s and Don’ts don’t necessarily help.

But this smack-down was well-said and well-deserved, and I was certainly pleased to find it amid the perfume ads and summer accessories.