Although I’m nowhere even near a time in my life to be thinking about having a baby, the topic of pregnancy has been on my mind a lot lately. I can’t help myself; there’s a near constant stream of content regarding female celebrity pregnancies on every newsstand and entertainment site. I’m always drawn to articles with titles like, “See How So-and-So Got Her Body Back After Giving Birth!” or, “How Insert-Celebrity-Name-Here lost 50 Pounds of Baby Weight In Just 3 Weeks!” or, “Look How Fat This Celebrity Got Over Her Nine Month Pregnancy!” There seems to be a sick fascination, almost an obsession, with women’s bodies during pregnancy. How big have they gotten? How much weight have they gained? How are they going to lose all the weight so they can get back to being a size 2 so we can objectify them again
I’m pissed about the way women, particular celebrity women, are treated throughout and after their pregnancies. The idea that these women have to immediately lose all the weight and look as if they were never pregnant in the first place is ridiculous. It’s problematic in a multitude of ways: first, that the weight has to come off in order for these women to be deemed conventionally attractive again. And of course, once they’ve lost all that weight and removed all signs that they were ever pregnant in the first place–god forbid a woman has stretch marks, or loose skin– they are once again just another hot piece of ass to be ogled.
This obsession with returning to the post-baby body takes away from the fact that these women just gave birth to another human being! These women literally carried a little tiny human being around inside of them for nine whole months; can’t we give them a break before we decide they have to fit into a tiny size zero bikini? Let these women bask in the glow of motherhood for a moment, let them worship their bodies as they are for having the ability to sustain a human life and bring something so beautiful and precious into this world!
The other issue I have with articles like, “Learn how this celebrity lost all the baby weight in just two months” or “Look at so-and-so; they’re back in a bikini one month after giving birth–what’s your excuse?” is that it promotes this unrealistic idea that losing weight is this easy, linear process that can be done quickly. It’s hard, and it takes time; especially if you’re a new mom! While I encourage everyone to eat healthily, work out, and get in shape so they can look and feel their best, it can be difficult taking those first steps, particularly if you’ve got a new baby.
Blake Lively recently shared on Instagram that she’s spent the past 14 months working to lose the 61 pounds she gained during the pregnancy; looking at Blake Lively and her perfect face, life, and body, one might think that the baby weight simply just up and disappeared right after she gave birth. She wrote in a surprisingly honest caption that: “Turns out you can’t lose the 61 lbs you gained during pregnancy by just scrolling through Instagram and wondering why you don’t look like all the bikini models. Thanks @donsaladino for kickin my A double S into shape. 10 months to gain, 14 months to lose. Feeling very proud ???”.
She puts it into perspective this idea that it takes time, effort, and dedication to lose the weight; it’s not a 2-month miracle process as some magazine make it out to be. And even so, she has all the resources and help in the world.
But some people were still bothered — although most of the comments were overwhelmingly positive, some were quick to point out that she has the resources to get the best trainers, housekeepers, and nannies money can buy.
Chrissy Teigen has also chimed in on this: In an interview with People, she said, “We have nutritionists, we have dietitians, we have trainers, we have our own schedules, we have nannies. We have people who make it possible for us to get back into shape. But nobody should feel like that’s normal, or like that’s realistic.”
While it’s amazing that Blake found the motivation to lose the weight and do it in a healthy, safe way, it’s important not to feel pressure to transform into a model or movie star overnight. Your body grew and fed a human, it’s crazy society expects that not to change what a woman looks like.
Furthermore, this obsession with women’s bodies takes away from other, more serious post-pregnancy issues, one being postpartum depression. This is a serious issue that many women suffer from, and only recently have people really started talking about it. Hayden Panettiere, Courteney Cox, Gwyneth Paltrow, and Brooke Shields have all opened up about their struggles with postpartum depression. After Paltrow gave birth to son Moses in 2006, she told Vogue U.K.: “At my lowest, I was a robot. I just didn’t feel anything. I had no maternal instincts for him—it was awful. I couldn’t connect, and still, when I look at pictures of him at three months old, I don’t remember that time.”
Brooke Shields emphasized the stigma surrounding postpartum depression, telling People magazine, “If I had been diagnosed with any other disease, I would have run to get help. I would have worn it like a badge. I didn’t at first—but finally, I did fight. I survived.”
Society’s focus solely on the post-baby woman’s body takes away from all the other much more important aspects of pregnancy. There’s so much more to being a mother than getting your pre-baby body back. If you want to immediately jump back into exercising and shed that baby weight, go for it! If it doesn’t happen right away that’s okay! You’ll get there. Either way, pregnant woman are some of the strongest people on the planet and deserve so much more than just recognition for getting their pre-baby bodies back.
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