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So some people are so bored criticizing women for “letting themselves go,” gaining weight, they set their sights on pregnant women now?!
When I first heard a few months ago that Jessica Simpson reportedly already signed a deal with Weight Watchers to lose weight after giving birth, I let out a big ol’ sigh. She is clearly an adult and can do as she pleases. She’s making millions off the deal.
I’m more concerned about the messages our girls get from things like this: Don’t you dare gain weight, not a pound. You better drop that baby weight ASAP. You are what you look like.
When I now see all of the crude things people are saying about Simpson’s pregnancy weight gain while pretending they are so concerned about her health, is it any wonder she is already focused on losing weight, even though she hasn’t even given birth?
BlissTree took on this issue, the mean talk about Jessica Simpson’s weight gain and why it goes beyond her.
We could probably all stand to check ourselves when it comes to how we talk about weight and looks around our girls. There is too much at risk to get it wrong. One third of all girls in grades nine to 12 think they are overweight, and 60 percent are trying to lose weight. Read more on some of the issues facing our girls.
What is this teaching women & especially all of these young girls having babies these days. I’m really at a loss. What am I suppose to teach my daughters about self-acceptance & natural beauty when woman in the public eye are constantly criticized beyond belief about gaining weight at a time when a woman is SUPPOSE to gain weight?
It is totally out of control. Very difficult on young girls and their self-esteem. Such a challenge for parents.
Ms Richelle, “the revolution will be televised.” In fact a few of Us (conscios) are watching it play out at the moment. While others (unconscious) have not a clue. Bless U. Be enCouraged.
the best part of being a mom is it doesnt matter what you look like your kids will still love you. thats all she needs to worry about now she doesnt need to worry about what everyone thinks of her and she is obviously not stupid shes got a pretty succesful buisness and makes more money than everyone who calls her stupid and fat.
Beauty is in the eyes of the beholder. The emphasis must be placed on each woman feeling good about themselves and never bowing to pressure to look like anything or anyone but themselves. The fact is they were created in the image of God and God is singing to every little girl, teens and women, ” I love you just the way you are”.
Its gotten ridiculous. Now pregnant women have to lose their weight within the first month and its not enough to just be skinny you have to be skinny and toned. Being a single woman, I can’t keep up. And I worry about the message it also sends to young men….”If she did it, why can’t you?”
Great point Tara. It creates unrealistic expectations for young men and even boys. The hyper-focus on what women and girls look like and *should* look like.
I am currently battling an eating disorder its such a hard disease to be wrapped into. I’m terrified of food and being fat, I mean mariah carey, jennifer hudson, jordin sparks, and the list goes on. And when you watch the video clips the reporters always talk about how great they look now, but I never saw a thing wrong before. I guess in this world you fend for yourself and hope you win the fight.
Corrin…you WILL win the fight. It’s so powerful that you see those women were fine before they ever lost a pound. You are darn right! xoxo
Enough about men and their weight too. We get clowned for being “too skinny” didn’t know that did you??
Monty, many of us do not know that, because it is not at the epic proportions that it is for women. Further, we see plenty of cases where men being out of shape is forgiven constantly, whereas women are still valued and recognized first and foremost based on youth + beauty+ better not be fat. Women go around saying they’d rather die an early death than be considered fat. Our nation is obsessed with obesity and ridicule women in particular for it daily. A few years ago there was a stud out that showed women from decades ago and their New Year’s resolutions (thinking it was from the ’20′s maybe) and their resolutions were about accomplishments, goals, dreams, inventions, etc……the resolutions for the modern day girls and young women were all about losing weight, fitting into some predestined ideal of what they should look like for everyone else’s pleasure. That makes me pretty sick. If women were liberated and free to focus on their dreams, goals, changing the world….imagine what could be done. And, men would be happier as well because women would be happier lovers, wives, sisters, and mothers.
I agree it’s so bad! I have people come up and measure me as a pregnant girl! I believe it’s worse when you are younger…I am 23 fully support myself and people do not see that they rather judge me right away! They judge how I look, my age and how I look to big, to small or I don’t look that big or I was chubby before! They judge me before they even know my story. I have had people tell me I’m to young to be pregnant. I think it’s sad pregnancy is suppose to be magical, a blessing and something that I can’t describe with words what it means to be pregnant! It’s annoying and needs to stop…
This just blows my mind! I think she looks absolutely gorgeous, she glows from the inside out
How can any young girl even hope to achieve a standard of beauty that thinks that Jessica Simpson is anything other than a beautiful, happy mother to be? It’s a very sad commentary on this world we live in. Bringing forth life is the most beautiful thing there is. Real women have curves not corners people…..she looks very healthy and that’s what’s most important for her baby and for her. Thanks for the discussion Richelle, it is so needed.
It makes me sick that a female has to be a certain size for many people to consider gorgeous. Being a thick famale can cause an individual to have differenct issues such as Eating d/o, self-esteem issues, feeling the need to please people, and many other issues. Is it wrong to be a size 11? Absolutely not, but that is not the message that comes across.
I’m really skinny, almost 20 yrs old and I HATE it, I’d give anything to be bigger but I just cannot gain weight
I don’t know why these big women want to get skinny, it’s so much better to be curvy!
Thank you for your view from a different perspective. We should be focusing on self confidence and health instead of dress size.
Yes our country has an obesity problem but we should be focusing on self esteem and confidence. A CONFIDENT woman is a beautiful woman. I struggle myself with trying to look like what society thinks I should as well as trying to tell my daughters it doesn’t matter what people think of you as long as you think of yourself as being beautiful.
so while yes, i’m sick of the weight comments too, you can’t ignore the truth. try as you may to say it’s ridiculous, wrong or damaging it is just a fact. we are judged by our physical being. it is an uncontrollable aspect of being human. i do not mean saying hurtful things to the overweight but the biological, deep rooted history in ourselves that causes us to judge within a millisecond. especially to those seeking mates i.e. teenagers who we know can be the harshest. they haven’t learned the self control that adults are required to exercise every day. if this is something we are ingrained with how do we overcome it? i do not think all the public discussions on the matter will resolve our issues especially with the all the puerile crap that people keep posting. what’s at the base of this is how unhealthy of a society we have become. my father tells me there was only 1 overweight kid in his entire high school when he was young and that child had a genuine glandular issue. why are we not instead outraged at the way in which we have allowed our food industry to pump us with impurities and ruin our lives or how daily exercise has been removed from our children’s school routines which is an INTEGRAL lesson that needs to be learned as early as possible. lets get to the heart of the matter folks. the REAL issues at hand and not the ramifications of them. yes we became outraged by “pink slime” recently and had it removed from our diets… mostly and only because it had a catchy, gross sounding name. what about the more flowery yet still as dangerous catch phrases that break us down everyday? Sodium nitrite, Hydrogenated oils, aspartame, carmine and the list goes on… lets blame this on the real culprit and take a stand folks. not about how jessica simpson has signed up with weight watchers to lose her baby weight and how that is such a terrible statement about society. honestly that’s awesome. good for her. being overweight sucks, i know personally, and if she, especially in her industry, realizes she needs to get on a plan right after delivery then fab! good luck girl! you make money off your image and to keep making that money you need to keep up with yourself.
All of this is so true. Why can’t we all JUST be happy for her. No ands, ifs, or buts about it.
It’s terrifying to think of how many young people are concerned with how they look and tend to almost hyper focus on it, like that is all they are. Last year I took my brother [who was only 8 then] to the gas station and offered to buy him a Soda. He told me “No, I need to drink Diet Soda, look how flabby my arms are” ] Mind you, my brother is in no way even unhealthily fat. He doesn’t have a real lot of muscle on his arms, so he squeezed the soft under part of his upper arm and he goes “SEE! FAT. FAT FAT FAT” and started to get really upset. I told him he was healthy and he didn’t need to lose weight and he goes “What do you know, you’re fat too.” [and I am, I am very fat but I am not ashamed I love my body how it is.] Come to find out, a boy at his Homeschool Association group meeting called him Fat and told him his arms were squishy and squishy means fat.
I have online friends that tell me how their Eating Disorders started from people calling them fat as a child (Other kids, Relatives, Etc) As early as age 7, 8, 9.. But yet people are often scolded and demonized for preaching Self-Love and Self-Acceptance. So which is worse? =(
I’m with you, Richelle. We women (and men!) need to stop watching shows like E! News, Fashion Police, and TMZ and quit reading Star and all the celebrity gossip magazines. ALL they talk about is how women look, who’s too fat, who’s too skinny, who has a great/awful bikini body, what someone looks like without makeup, etc. It’s disgusting!
Wow. I think people are so miserable and bored with their lives that they will pick on anyone to make themselves feel better or somehow maybe superior. Even a pregnant woman. It seems that as time goes on people are sinking lower and lower in their depravity. God help us all.