Getting Your Body Back After Pregnancy: Social Implications of Gendered Notions of the Body

The perfect female body image is inundated in every facet of the media. The latest diet fads tell you how to loose weight quickly, magazine articles discusshow to have a beach ready body by summer, and television shows capitalize on getting individuals healthy. This depiction of the female body creates an unhealthy norm of what women are supposed to look like. Especially after giving birth, women are pressured to get their body back to normal in the fastest way possible. 

According to Sociology Lens, Ruth Marleen discusses the gendered notions of the body, expectations and weight loss. Marleen discusses how after celebrities give birth, they are immediately pressured to loose weight. I feel like there is nothing wrong with a woman wanting to get in shape, but shouldn't feel pressured to achieve results so fast. The photo slide show above displays various magazines discussing how fast celebrities got their body back. Achieving these body changes are done very quickly and may suggest to every day moms that this is something they may never achieve. Many of these woman under the public eye have the money to have a trainer, time to workout and have help in caring for their child. Marleen discusses how one of her acquaintances  who is a mother is discouraged by these depictions, "I look at Kourtney Kardashian and she lost all her weight in like two seconds! It's frustrating because it takes a lot to loose the weight. They can hire trainers, eat the best food, hire caregivers so they can go to the gym and workout. But for real moms it's not that simple." (Marleen)

From a feminist perspective, Dworkin & Wachs (2004) discuss how unrealistic these expectations are for women getting back into shape coupled with other social roles they have to manage. They examined Shape Fit Pregnancy Magazine by content analysis (issues from 1997-2003). The social implications result in an unhealthy manner of acheiving these results. Dworkin & Wachs discuss Barkty (1988) and Duncan (1994) research on these implications, "Feminist researchers have underscored how women do not frequently critique larger cultural norms as problematic; rather, many self-blame and internalize a sense of private bodily failure, embarking on fitness routines, plastic surgery, and dieting practices to rectifiy anxieties about bodily lack (Bartky, 1988, Duncan, 1994)" The results from the analysis showed a racialized, classes, gendered, sexualized matrix of domination. They found that the articles rarely mentioned getting back to work, 81% of the models were white, did not speak to the lower classes and there was little discussion of same sex couples. 

Resources: Dworkin & Wachs (2004), Shape Pregnancy Fit Magazine, Bartky (1998), Duncan (1994)