Yesterday, in Glamour new mom and writer Petra Guglielmetti calls out the celeb media’ obsession with the post delivery celeb mom, in her piece, “Let’s Stop Clicking on Stories About Celebrities’ Post-Baby Bodies”.
Here is an excerpt:
Today I “stepped out post-baby,” also known in the tabloids as debuting my post-baby body. At least I think today would be considered my official debut—I left the house to work at a cafe after months of maternity leave. According to the headlines, celebrity moms debut themselves after childbirth in a variety of ways. Some, like Blake Lively, “display” and/or “flaunt” their post-baby selves by wearing clothing—not even necessarily revealing clothing—to press events. Many “show off” en route to the gym, a la Jessica Biel. Others simply venture out in public with a friend, like Jaime King (“Less than weeks after giving birth to baby Leo, Jaime King is already making her way out into the world.” Less than weeks? And wow, to think, boldly being visible out in public like that.) Apparently, when you are famous and have just given birth, such normal-seeming activities become debuts, opportunities for the world to examine how well your looks fared during that whole growing-and-birthing-a-human-being thing…..
….It’s hard not to click on these stories, even though we realize we shouldn’t encourage paparazzi to stalk new moms, who are already vulnerable, riding a roller coaster of stress and hormones. (Yes, professional actors sign up for a certain amount of media attention, but motherhood—especially new motherhood—should be sacred, no matter how high-profile you are.) We click even though we realize we should not compare ourselves to people who have full-time nannies and on-call glam squads. We click even though we realize that every woman’s build and metabolism and biology is unique; most of us didn’t have Jessica Alba’s post-baby abs before we had kids. We click even though we know we’ll glimpse comments that make us lose faith in humanity (“Looks like her boobies have deflated!”).
She then goes on to express her experiences of living life fully after delivering her baby and under different standards and without the flashing lights and glare of the public. She confesses that the media stories about celebs, however, can impact women’s opinion of their own post-baby bodies. Finally, Guglielmetti proposes we all work to end it:
Here’s what I propose: Let’s stop clicking. Just decide here and now that we’re not doing it anymore. It’s one little-but-big way in which we can make our world a kinder place for new moms, and women in general. When you see any headline with any variation on “post-baby body” in it, just don’t click. As someone who has been employed as an online writer for a long time now, I promise you that editors will notice that we’re all not clicking and that those stories will dwindle and eventually disappear. Wouldn’t that be lovely?
I’m down. We don’t really cover post-baby bodies that much anymore here so, less clicks for our competitors sounds lovely! ha!
Just kidding, we believe in the message. and have blogged similar themes before so Bravo, Petra!