Did you see this earlier on this week? I decided on Tuesday that it was this week’s Ranty Friday. In fact I nearly published this on Tuesday.
As the Duchess of Cambridge, Kate Middleton, was going into labour, OK magazine was beginning to circulate their first magazine celebrating the event. Oh isn’t that lovely?
No. It was not. It was despicable. That is the front page, above.
Focussing on how soon Catherine will get back into shape after having the baby. They have even talked to her trainer about it. What?!
Rather than celebrating this momentous occasion they are focussing on how quickly she can get back to her pre baby weight and shape.
Not only that but inside the magazine there is a feature on the diet she should be following. Diet tips for a mother who has given birth not 24 hours before.
An exercise plan that talks about what to do on Day One. DAY ONE?!!!!! What the actual f*ck? I could barely stand up right on day one. Concentrating on myself and my stomach was not high on my agenda on Day One. For god sake it still isn’t now and my youngest is fourteen.
This is one of THE most despicable pieces of journalism I have ever read.
Encouraging a woman to go on a diet and exercise rather than concentrating on the new miraculous life that has been created is shameful. Suggesting to their readers that this is the most important thing right now and what they will devote their front page to, and a fair chunk of the inside towards is just awful.
And magazines such as this feeding into the ethos of “if you are not thin you are a failure” makes me rage.
Properly rage.
As Catherine stood on the steps of the Lindo Wing with her hands under her tummy as her husband held their new baby she couldnt have looked more beautiful. More radiant. More proud. Yes, she had a bump but she had just given birth!! Did they seriously expect her to stand there side on with a flat stomach in a pair of jeans? Or to be in a pair of jeans by this weekend?
Seems that actually they did because is what their Twitter account tweeted:
See that? A woman who is probably a size 8 and has just given birth has some moron tweeting the above. Later deleted I might add but that doesn’t stop it being out there for all to see.
If Kate decides she wants to do see her trainer this week, well that is down to her. That is fine. If any woman decides she wants to, maybe she is a pilates teacher and wants a flat stomach again, fair enough. I have no problem with that. That is her choice. But for a national magazine to be running this on a front page with whole articles suggesting she should do it, there is no excuse.
What we are telling society is that you need to be thin. You need to be on a diet and exercising. Every day. And you don’t get any time off for having a baby. I pity the world my children are growing up in. I really do. That as my son realises what is important in the world amongst mud huts in Kenya we have national magazines over here perpetuating this kind of crap.
I hope the editor gets sacked. She should be ashamed that she signed off on this.
I thought she looked the best she has ever done, standing there a proud mummy with her beautiful son and husband and a dress that showed off the bump she still has , it wasn’t long before she got pregnant the media was saying she was too thin !
Yes, that’s a really good point. That’s the thing with the media – and sadly, in particular, the media with a female target audience – women are objectified. If we aren’t too fat, we’re too thin. If we aren’t sexy then we’re pig-ugly, if we aren’t botoxed to the hilt, then we’re haggard… thank god for the female blogging community, where real women get to write about what real women want and need to read to make them feel good about themselves. I see magazines peddling stuff like this Ok! editorial and realise why my magazine consuming days are all but over, save for The Sunday Times Style bought by default with the rest of the paper!
I thought she looked amazing, a bit tired, like you’d expect, delighted, radiant and happy! Not for one minute should anyone be looking below her chin, to discuss her body, or what she’s going to do with it! She’s just had a baby after being pregnant for nine months, give the woman a break! I was horrified by what ok and others had to say about her weight loss plans etc. I’m glad you mentioned it, lots of people are furious! I hope she hasn’t actually seen the article and I hope her personal trainer got a ticking off for such stupidity at the very least!
Spot on.
And do you know what, they havent talked to her personal trainer about her at all. It is a made up interview, same as the one inside from David Beckham, its all old quotes.
Clearly no Z list weddings this week to cover so they are making stuff up.
Makes me fume
BLOODY AWFUL behaviour from OK. Bugger it all. I loathe than my teen daughter faces these insidious fat is bad messages everywhere she looks, but this is even worse, this isnt about fat its about pregnancy. Beautiful wonderful pregnancy. Syd is 2 in a fortnight,and i still have half my baby weight to lose. Enjoy your baby Kate, and all new mums, because those are the memories that you will smile at for the rest of your life, your stomach will take care of itself!
Totally agree. I hope that editor gets sacked, or at the least publishes and apology in this week’s.
You know she won’t
She was standing so proud on those steps, beautiful and radiant, the love in her eyes for her husband and son as you say hands under her bump…that says to me she is proud, if she was willing (i know she wasn’t) for this article she would have tried to avoid showing any signs of the bump after birth……People in the magazine/paper world need to get a reality check from these magazines, they encourage and influence people which in turn causes mental health issues and other detrimental health issues x
I agree. And they didnt even know at the point of writing what she would look like, given how fit and slim she was there was every possibility that she WOULD come out with a flat stomach. They put that edition to bed before they had any idea. They made decisions over a week before on what would be in that issue, with no thought for what reality would have been.
Shameful decisions.
Everyone is so different, I have only known one person to ever fit in her jeans within a week of giving birth, she wasn’t a health freak, just a very slim lady who desperately wanted to gained a few pounds because she felt she was to thin. Me well 9 yrs on and I still have the baby belly 😉 x
I’ve never bought one of these magazines, and I wouldn’t – I don’t buy into the celebrity culture and frankly couldn’t give 2 hoots about the royal baby or the royals at all to be fair (apathy rather than open revolution) but this was truly disgusting! It just typifies everything I hate about this media driven, image obsessed world we live in!
If I bought this crappy magazine then I’d be boycotting it. I seriously agree that the editor should be sacked along with whoever is in charge if their social media. She looked wonderful – I looked like a bag of crap for the first 6 months. Articles, let alone front page features, like this make me want to cry and hurt someone.
Had seen the magazine cover and thought it an utterly stupid editorial decision – can’t even get my head round how that editorial planning meeting must have been run, I know that as a woman I wouldn’t have been able to sit in it and say that the editorial they were planning was anything other than a heinous and misogynistic idea.
But, to see the above tweet has me completely and utterly flabbergasted. I do think that whoever sanctioned it should be sacked.
Absolutely and wholeheartedly agree with you. It’s a total outrage, as if a new mum doesn’t feel full of mixed emotions as it is, does anyone need to hear that they must be thin within 24 hours?! Ridiculous. I have linked up my somewhat ranty post on the same subject.
It takes enormous guts, standing in front of the world when all she probably wanted to do was take her baby home. She looked like a naturally beautiful new mother…thank God she didn’t try and hide the reality of how it is 24 hours after having a baby. Disgusted.
I thought Catherine was amazing. Yes she had a bit of post-birth belly but don’t we all? And not only did she look like a true mother who had just given birth (ignoring her perfectly done hair) she was able to go over to the media of the world and chat with them as if they were good friends. Both William and Catherine shone that day. It’s disappointing that magazines like OK don’t see the positives and just go on and on about not having the perfect body after giving birth. I wonder if the person who wrote the article has ever had a baby because seems they have no clue what it’s like.
I totally agree with you, it is a total disgrace. I was horrified when I saw that tweet, where do they think the bump magically disappears to? Just ridiculous.
It was a disgusting front-page!
I was so moved by their appearance, their public display of genuine love, affection and pride setting an amazing example whilst showing what ‘normal women’s’ stomach’s look like post birth.
Not 24hrs after and she looked radiant and could walk without giving away that she probably felt like her insides may fall out. That wasn’t extra weight or fat, it was water retention and bloating from the huge feat her body had just performed.
Shame on OK!!