I'll tell you what's obscene….. Jealousy, double standards and hypocrisy at Mama Mia
Can I tell you what really pisses me off?
Hypocrisy and double standards.
Mama Mia has managed to do both this week with THIS shameful post from Rebecca Sparrow, a Mum herself.
According to Rebecca at MM, only women with post baby flabby tummies are allowed to post selfies on the internez.
Also, despite actively encouraging ALL new mums to post pictures of their “real” post baby bodies in THIS article, the photo below of fitness blogger Caroline Eriksen was deemed by MM to be obscene.
Yes, MM actually used the word OBSCENE about a new mothers body.
Where exactly does MM get off saying such hurtful, discouraging and totally unsupportive things when they are supposed to be actively encouraging positive post baby body image?
Caroline posted her blog photo with the comment “I feel so empty, and still not … 4 days after birth“.
To me, this comment, which I find really poignant, would not have worked had she been clothed in yoga pants; her emptiness is not just a metaphor, its visual.
Shame. Shame. Shame.
Rebecca goes on to say “where the baby?” She just had a baby, where the baby? Is it ALL about how fit you look?
How self-absorbed of her. You’re a mother now, it should be ALL about the baby.
Um yes, love, last time I checked, fitness bloggers blog about fitness, not babies.
Being a Mother is not ALL about the baby, you know?
Plus, what a great advertisement to your fitness readers. Being fit really does help the body bounce back.
Whilst the photo did look a little staged in nice underwear (and hey, who doesn’t stage a good show-off selfie?) would it have been less offensive to the flabby tummied post baby mummies if she was in bathers? Rebecca, are you really that green-eyed that you would belittle a new mother who you don’t know to your audience by calling her obscene?
Who cares if you parked your chair by the fridge for your entire pregnancy?
Who cares if you exercised up until the day your waters broke?
Who cares if your baby weight magically dropped off 4 days after giving birth?
Who cares if you still have 30kg to lose 12 months later?
real1
riːl/
adjective
-
1.
actually existing as a thing or occurring in fact; not imagined or supposed.
-
Nobody, NOBODY is any less “REAL” for being exactly what they are.
Caroline Eriksen is every bit as real as the images in the “Positive Body Challenge” MM was waxing lyrical about and the double standards really shit me.
Positive Bodies my arse.
The only Positive Bodies MM deems acceptable to publish it would seem, are flabby semi naked selfies, often with a hand only covering breasts and pussy, hiding tummies with baby weight, stretch marks and dimples. At least Caroline had clothes on!
O.M.F.G.
These pictures of me were taken in 2008 when G Man was 2 days old.
Yes, two days.
Shall I put it in capitals like MM?
Yes, people, TWO DAYS!
Do you hate me? Am I obscene? Am I not REAL enough??
I reckon after a few more days I could have posed in some nice undies and got a similar photo of myself to Caroline. Especially when my milk came in – My hubby jokingly referred to me as Barbie on steroids as I was back to my pre-baby weight in a few days with uber big boobs to boot.
This is me 12 months after G Man was born. Do I have a REAL mummy body Mama Mia or are there not enough stretch marks? Are my boobs (which I breast fed from for 12 months) not saggy enough to make me REAL?
I am lucky, I know this, genetically blessed in that the baby tummy just dropped right off.
I haven’t exercised since 2003. Shhhhh.
Do I deserve to send a photo in to the MM Real Bodies exhibition or will I be quietly mocked, laughed at, humiliated and shamed for putting too much pressure on the REAL women to lose their baby weight?
Puh-lease!!!
Are the photos of Caroline Eriksen obscene because jealousy is a REAL bitch?
All Women are REAL Women.
Get over it.
I’ll tell you what’s obscene…..
Jealousy, double standards and hypocrisy over at Mama Mia.
Thank you! I was beginning to think I was the only one angered by those comments. With my first, walking out if the hospital I was stopped by a nurse asking where the baby’s mother was. I weighed 5kg less that day compared to the day I found out I was pregnant. I was super healthy, really fit and really young. A month later I was down to 52kg! Two more kids and 10 years later I’m now 90kg unhealthy and unfit. Sure, I love my pp body, but why is the healthy but uncommon one worse, more unattractive,more shameful, than my big scarred body now? Ask my husband and he will say he loves my body however it comes, but I preferred when I was HEALTHY which despite all these body image messages which are GREAT, health should be at the forefront and this woman is amazing. As is every woman!
Truth! Thanks for commenting and reading along. xxx
Damn bloody straight it’s bollocks. Double standards and sticking it to the women who bounce back to make her feel better about herself. When my wife had her first child her body was back to it’s pre-baby shape a few days later and at the same time she felt pretty bloody awful because the woman’s magazines were sticking it to Ell & what ever other celebrities had a baby and didn’t have a ‘post baby body’ to show for it and making out that it was a failure on the woman’s part for not matching the female expectation that they would be flabby & miserable about themselves. Add to that the dirty looks she was getting from other women when they found out how new our baby was.
Well done Mama Mia for finding another way to make women feel bad about themselves by trying to bring them down to your base standard rather than working positively to lift all women up.
Totally sucks balls doesnt it – their double standards amaze me. I wrote to them and asked about it and was told that they like to give all opinions voice. Gah!!!!
Thanks for your comment. x
I too was irritated by this article but not for exactly the same reasons as you are. Mamma mia claims to be a feminist voice and yet it keeps bombarding with this shite. Women (and men too) have different body types and society should collectively get over it. Its actually disempowering to women to keep us focused on our appearance when we should be broadening our horizons. I dont think there’s anything wrong with health and fitness and taking pride in our appearance is such that the emphasis in our culture is solely on that and its time for a re-balance. Meanwhile I have long since dumped Mammia Mia in favour of the Hoopla. Shows my age 😉
Not just feminist, but equal would be enough. I think I will see you over at the Hoopla. I too have cut the crap that is Mamamia out of my life. xxx
I love the way you so comfortably speak your mind chick – that is such a gift. And holy shitballs – why are you not fitness blogging because I would PAY to have your body! xx
I just speak my opinion chick; your writing is pure truth. xxx
Oh and ha!!! Whilst I am still slender, fit I am not. I get puffed walking from the bedroom to the fridge 🙂 You cant buy good luck. xxx
This is fabulous – I am so over people replacing one ridiculous expectation with a very narrow alternative. The whole love your body movement annoys me, not because I don’t think people should love their bodies, but because they are still focused on HOW you look. Suddenly it’s not the ‘fat’ girls being ostracised, but the skinny ones. As far as I’m concerned, loving your body is about how you treat it, not what you think when you look in the mirror. I’m a size 6-8 (with out of proportion hips – according to clothes manufacturers my body shape doesn’t exist! Lol) after having three kids, and I know I need to look after my body better. But I can’t say that because I’m ridiculed EVERY time I do.
After reading the comments below I think I must check out the Hoopla – I am so over the hypocrisy and melodrama at Mamamia and want something REAL! Will be following you now too!
Thanks again for a great article!