In this article, a mom of three young kids poses in her work
out clothes as a “inspiration” for moms to get fit. I thought I would share this with everyone because I am
curious on everyone’s thoughts. I can see two arguments to be made:
1.
She wants women to get into shape. As someone who has recently discovered
a new found love for eating healthy and working out, I understand this. It makes me worried when people don’t
take their own health seriously. I
started working out more and eating healthier when I realized that diabetes and
heart disease were in my family history.
So I understand that aspect
of it.
2.
However… I also see how many people would react
negatively to this article. She is
almost saying “why aren’t you as skinny as me?” There is this expectation (that we have talked about in
class) for women to get back into tip top shape after having a baby. There is this expectation that you HAVE
to do this or else you are not being a good mother.
I am leaning more towards the second argument… does anyone
else have any thoughts?
As soon as the picture popped up, I felt slight disgust towards it. Not because of her shape and fitness level, but because of the slogan at the top. For her to say that all you have to do is want it more and rescheduled your day to get it comes from a place of privilege that she is able to do that. It doesn't account that everyone's weight, fitness level, body image, and overall health isn't always as simple as the willpower to do it.
ReplyDeleteOn one hand I understand that shes saying, if I can do it anybody can do it but on the other hand I can understand why some mothers might find this problematic. Spreading the message that she did with that picture is further enforcing the expectation of women having to quickly loosing the weight they gain during pregnancy and that creates so many problems.
ReplyDeleteI kind of feel like this woman probably didn't intend to put down other women or create so much backlash she probably just wanted to show off her hard work.
I definitely think this woman was trying to send a positive message and didn't realize that using softer words were probably have had a better effect on people. Reading about her life and all that she does is indeed very inspiring but just seeing the picture alone with the what's your excuse question on top is very demeaning. So I can definitely relate to both view points as well.
ReplyDelete