My two cents

So, I received a link to this article from a friend.  Maybe you've read it.  If not, please go do so now so as to fully understand what I'm talking about.

Ok, everyone read it?  Have your opinion formulated?  Whatever your feelings/opinion, I promise you I respect them.

Here is mine: 

We as women are some fickle beings.  We go from a culture of women who damn near kill ourselves to fit some ideal image we are bombarded with in every magazine and TV show to a culture of women who get up in arms when someone posts a picture that makes us feel bad about ourselves.

Did I look like Ms. Six Pack Abs four days after giving birth?  No.  I didn't look like that when I was 18.  I'll never look like that.  Ever.  Not even with surgery.  Ok, maybe with, like, millions of dollars in surgery.  But odds are, never.

Even so, seeing that picture didn't make me feel not one twinge of "oh my god, why so much pressure to lose all this weight right after birth?!" and I'm 2 months from giving birth and have given birth three times previously.

I don't know if it came with having a million kids or turning 30 or realizing that (yes, Miranda again) it really does take all kindsa kinds, but I just don't put that kind of pressure on myself anymore.  I certainly am not going to start because a woman I do not know posted a half naked picture of herself on Instagram.

I think we can all agree that she is a severe exception to the rule.  Most of us have a stomach more akin to a deflated inner tube four days after giving birth.  And we go at our own pace in taking the baby weight off.  I've done everything from put on 60 more pounds after birth to dropping enough weight to equal half a person after birth.  Both approaches were my choice.  Your approach is your choice.

My advice is to douse yourself with reality when it comes to judging yourself against pictures like this.  

I don't know that woman.  I don't know her motives in posting the picture.  I don't know how healthy or unhealthy she was during her pregnancy.  I imagine that post-baby body has to do with her being a disciplined person and a whole whole lot more to do with her genetics.

WE CANNOT CHANGE OUR GENETICS.  And the quicker we come to terms with that and learn to love our bodies and make choices that make sense for us as individuals, the better off we are going to be.  

I don't think it is fair that we fight all these battles for equality and to be respected for who we are as individuals and then we turn around and crucify someone who isn't "normal" because she isn't "normal" in a way that makes us jealous or makes us feel inadequate about ourselves.  That is still being judgmental and hypocritical.  That is still the very definition of what we claim to hate about our society.

That's my opinion on the matter anyway.