Moms are some of the coolest people on this planet.
They’re the best multitaskers. They’re strong, they’re tough as hell, and they’re quite literally life-givers. So why, in this day and age, do people still shame them for what they look like?
RELATED STORIES
Why are dad bods celebrated, but not mom bods?
Guess who’s about to get on their soap box?
Me, it’s me. See, I’m not a mom, but I write about them a lot, and seeing the kind of comments moms get on social media has turned my stomach a time or two.
The hard truth that we all know — but some would rather dismiss — as is that the issue of women’s bodies and how brutally they’re criticized is directly tied to misogyny.
But there’s no reason to treat women with such contempt.
If there’s one thing the body positivity movement has strived to teach us, it’s that our worth is not tied to how we look.
We’ve all been hardwired to treating men as people, regardless of their weight. We’ve celebrated dad bods for years, and rightly so! Not every man has to be jacked. In fact, it’s great that they’re not.
But when it comes to female bodies, we’re not as lenient.
We absolutely love dad bods.
We celebrate dad bods all the time! The minute a celebrity dude reveals his slightly softer body, social media lights up in celebration.
Men who are softer are beloved by social media! We love dudes with a bit of a belly. So why don’t we extend that to moms?
And let’s be real: Mom bods are cool as hell.
I mean, hello? They can house and birth whole new people! Their bones can quite literally move to accommodate a baby’s head. Their bodies move, and change, and shift. They stretch.
We need to celebrate that! We need to acknowledge how cool and amazing it is that women can do things like that, and slap some respect on their names for it!
Thankfully, social media is slowly changing.
Normalizing mom bods is the first step in celebrating them. No one knows that better than moms on social media. Or, as @kamexplainsitall put it:
“Just a little warning, don’t come in my comment section talking about how brave I am to post this photo. Why should it be considered brave or abnormal to post a cute bump pic of a cute pregnant lady?!”
Having a mom bod can be freeing.
For many moms, it means that they’ve transcended a lot of their hang-ups. Yeah, it would be nice to “bounce back.” But that’s not always realistic.
Instead, moms have bigger things to focus on: Being moms! And if they have a tummy, then who cares? That doesn’t determine their self-worth, and it definitely doesn’t impact how great a mom they are.
And the marks their bodies bear are beautiful.
The human body is so resilient. And no one knows that better than moms, who quite literally go through hell to bring new life to the world.
It’s about time that we recognized the athleticism that it takes to do such things, and respect how hard moms work!
It’s time to change the narrative.
It’s not a matter of not celebrating dad bods, because those are great! But we also need to recognize the inherent bias against women here, and recognize that sexism plays a large role in how we view female bodies.
Let’s change that.
Let’s hype all those mom bods up.
Moms, let me just say: You look great. You’re perfect. You don’t need to change at all. If you’re happy, then that’s all that matters.
Dads, let me just say: You also look great. Help me in hyping mom bods up so that everyone can relax a little.
I’m proud of all of you. Let’s do this.
