Xtina: Skinny With Tits, To Go

Okay, so. First: I think that it's great that Christina Aguilera is breastfeeding. GREAT. Awesome. And I also think that it's great that she's plugging breastfeeding, talking it up and really being all pro-titty about the whole thing. Because, you know,  the cause of titties serving their natural purpose is one that everyone should totally get behind. (It's worth mentioning, too, she's, like, stellar advertising for the cause. Have you seen her boobies? They are lactating, and they are spectacular. Those puppies are two very good reasons for women everywhere to consider breastfeeding very, very seriously.)

BUT (you knew there was a but, right? There's always a but.)

Why does her otherwise wonderful lactivist commentary need to be so focussed on the weight-loss effect of breastfeeding? Because, actually, when you parse what she's said about breastfeeding? It sounds a little like an explanation of how to lose weight, full stop (which is exactly what it was, actually - she was responding to questions about how she dropped weight so fast):

“I think they say that when you're breastfeeding, you know, your weight kind of slims down. It's a little
easier. It's like a workout within itself. It’s very tiring actually and you find yourself snacking more often.”

Which, fine. If women take up breastfeeding because it helps them lose the baby weight (and maybe get a spectacular rack for a while. Note: FOR A WHILE. Those puppies aren't permanent) then more power to them and their babies. BUT (rant alert): a) it simply doesn't always work that way (I fell for the story that breastfeeding helps fight the weight, and was really frustrated when it didn't. I didn't lose weight until I *stopped* breastfeeding) and (rant alert! rant alert!) b) WHY DO WE CARE SO F*CKING MUCH?

Personally? I'm already stressed about how I'm going to drop the excessive poundage that I've put on in this second pregnancy (caught a glimpse of my ass in the mirror the other day. NOT GOOD. Memo to self: avoid all reflective surfaces) and I've still got more than nine weeks to go. I'd like, just once, to read (or - joy! - write ) a story about a celebrity dealing with the first months of motherhood and not being pre-occupied with weight loss. Maybe celebrate the curves a little? View those curves as a marker of maternal loveliness, rather than as a post-partum plague to be excised by any means necessary, including marathon pumping sessions? (RANT CODE RED)

Is that too much to ask?

(Jezebel currently has an interesting story about how 'baby weight' now equals 'FAT' in the eyes of the entertainment media. They're right, of course. They, however, think that this contributes to a fetishization of fertility in the entertainment-industrial complex, whereby the 'pretty' parts of motherhood are given excessive attention. I think that it points to a fetishization of babies as accessories, rather than as little beings that actually gestate and are nurtured by a female body which necessarily undergoes a physical transformation in the process, which means that fertility is entirely beside the point. Getting a pretty little baby whose pictures can be sold for a mill is the point - as is trimming that ass back down so that everyone can forget your unfortunate lapse into fattitude and just focus on THE PRETTY LITTLE BABY CAN'T YOU GET THAT ASS OUT OF THE WAY OMG.

*RANT CODE PURPLE MISSILES FIRED HEAD EXPLODED*

OK. Am thinking too hard again. Am way too hormonal.

Going to seek solace in chocolate.)

Comments

[DianaCLT]

I feel your pain, Catherine. This might perk you up: I lost my baby weight from my 2nd baby quickly. Sadly, however, I'm still trying to lose the excess weight from my first. And he's 5 1/2! I was hoping the nursing of baby #2 would help me get rid of the extra weight from baby #1 (since nursing baby #1 didn't help my weight - it doesn't always work that way, Christina Aguilera!), but I think my ass, belly, chinS, and hips are just comfy the way they are now. And let's face it: I love the chocolate, in all its chocolatey chocolateness - so I think the taste buds are comfy the way I am now, too.

Good luck with your last few weeks! Are you peeing constantly? Is your baby using your ribcage as a ladder? Enjoy it as much as you can... :)

[Hot Librarian]

Oh Catherine, I am so very with you on this one. It's not just young women who are getting these twisted messages about body image from Hollywood and the fashion world - it's us older currently or once pregnant women as well. How many times, even though I know better, do I look at my own sad, deflated belly every time I see a picture of any celeb w/ kids in a bikini and feel really shitty about myself? Too many times. And the total obsession with "look how fast she lost her baby weight! Woo hoo!" has got to stop.

Right, so this post? Is awesome. ROCK ON WITH YOUR BADASS HORMONAL SELF!

[sweetney]

i'm with Hot Librarian: CATHERINE FUCKIN' ROOLZ!

[Amanda]

I was so stressed with getting breastfeeding right that I gained weight from all the emotional eating.

[chatty cricket]

I remember reading an absolutely hilarious quote from Kate Beckinsale about how everyone and their mother told her breastfeeding was a miracle baby-weight dropper, but it actually made her gain more weight.

You know what ladies? If we all had personal trainers and personal chefs and personal plastic surgeons at our beck and call, we'd also all look flawless after having babies. And it wouldn't hurt either to have a personal airbrusher to tackle those pesky family photos from vacation.

[chatty cricket]

but also- consider the Patricia Heaton. I'd rather be flawed with all my parts in the right places than be tiny and missing, say, a belly button.

[BaltimoreGal]

I love you all for this.
And I ain't never birthed no baby.

[Amalah]

I had a prenatal appointment this morning and spent my time in the waiting room reading about the Best & Worst Post-Baby Bodies in fucking Star magazine. They tried to spin "worst" as "losing too much weight too quickly" but the bikini photos were all the same -- stick-thin women with perfectly flat and unmarked bellies and thighs.

That's not the fetishization of fertility, really -- it's just the same old unrealistic body image crap we've been fed since we hit puberty. Only now instead of starving ourselves we're supposed to ignore our newborns to spend time at the gym. Or get tons of reconstructive surgery.

[Amy]

Woohoo! Your post was dead on. I do kinda feel sorry for Christina though. I think that she has just bought into the old wives tale - which we know, is not necessarily true.

It brings to mind an episode of Desperate Housewives where Lynette had to tell the mother of a 4ish year old that it made the office uncomfortable that she was still breastfeeding. Her response? That should would have to watch what she ate and that's why she continued to breastfeed. Uhm, what kinda of stupidity was that?

As far as a positive post-partum celeb? I have to think of Leah Remini. Her post-baby body and struggle with it was real -rather than the surgery and million dollar trainer induced post-preg celebs we usually see.

[Suzy Q]

Cristina's boobs were fake before her pregnancy, that's why they're so ginormous.

For spectacular pre- and post-partum natural boobs, see Salma Hayek.

[Her Bad Mother]

Suzy Q - Salma's boobs are works of the gods.

[Kimberly C]

Playing devil's advocate here- Christina's boobs aren't necessarily fake- I am 5'3 and sporting a 30 dd bra- and only one of those D's came from breastfeeding. Just wanted to throw it in there that just because a person is skinny but with boobs doesn't mean you bought them. Sometimes they're the bane of your existance. Christina looks good because she has a stylist to make sure she's in the right bra to lift and seperate the girls whereas the rest of us have to go and get sized and spend the 50+ dollars on a bra that fits.

Your rant was on target, but I have to wonder if it isn't just the media taking things out of context- Christina didn't announce that she was pregnant, maybe she just doesn't want to tell everyone all the reasons she is breastfeeding.

I wish that it wasn't such a big deal for women to get their pre-baby shape back, but if you walked out of the hospital in your old jeans, wouldn't you wear them and be happy?
*Done now, go ahead and yell at me*

[Taylor Blue]

I am with you on this one too. It makes me mad too that she is making it look like breastfeeding is exercise. I lost the weight from my first baby pretty easy...within the first year...but my second took me forever...and I am still working on it. I nursed both...and I nursed my son for over a year. I don't think this is sending the right message at all. There, now I said it...

[Sadie]

Kimberly C - Christina DOES have breast implants. She got them before her Stripped album. They have, of course, gotten larger since her pregnancy/breastfeeding, but they were fake to start with.

[Kimberly C]

Sadie- I don't really keep up with Christina, her music is really not my style. My argument was really more about the assumption that people have when they see a skinny girl with big boobs- some part of her must be fake, whether it is the skinny or the boobs. Also, some women DON'T struggle to lose baby weight. Others do. The ones who do are made to feel like they can't say anything about it lest people talk trash or hate them for it. It just seems like another way for women to knock one another down and compete, when we should really try to understand each othe and be supportive. Why ARE women so mean to one another?