“Who Doesn’t Want to Be This Hot Mom?”: Celebrity Mom Profiles and Mothers’ Accounts of Their Postpartum Bodies

Abstract

In this article, we explore mothers' responses to celebrity mom body (CMB) profiles in popular magazines. Drawing from objectification theory, we frame CMB images as one component of the ubiquitous sexualization of girls' and women's bodies, and ask how these images influence mothers' views of their postpartum bodies. While a good deal of previous research examines the media portrayal of pregnant and postpartum bodies, very few studies go on to ask how these images affect mothers' self-image and their relationships with men. During in-depth interviews, we showed our sample CMB images and found that most mothers evaluated themselves negatively; however, we add that they evaluated themselves in different ways depending on their social class and educational backgrounds. All mothers identified negative effects of CMB images on men, which diminished mothers' feelings of sexual attractiveness to male partners.

A Close and Supportive Interparental Bond During Pregnancy Predicts Greater Decline in Sexual Activity From Pregnancy to Postpartum: Applying an Evolutionary Perspective

“…Recognizing that relationship conflict can interfere with creating a positive environment that supports healthy child development (Amato, 2001;Davies et al, 2006;Brock and Kochanska, 2016) authors across disciplines have encouraged clinicians specializing in postpartum care to counsel their patients regarding changes in sexual activity and sexual wellbeing (see e.g., Glazener, 1997;Leeman and Rogers, 2012;O'Malley et al, 2015). Similarly, popular media outlets abound with articles on how to "bounce back" to one's pre-pregnancy body and sexuality, with the strong implication that the faster one returns to sexual activity, the healthier the parental relationship will be (Roth et al, 2012;Williams et al, 2017).…”

Personality and Postpartum Sexual Functioning in Israeli Women: The Mediating Role of Body Image

“…It may be argued that consistent with the objectification theory (Fredrickson & Roberts, 1997), women are socialized to view themselves as sexual objects based on appearance, and that sexualization and objectification of women’s bodies is inescapable in Western culture, even among postpartum women (Williams, Christopher, & Sinski, 2017). Thus, addressing the culture’s double bind regarding women’s postpartum bodies, while providing more accurate and realistic portrayals of them, may help women feel better about their postpartum bodies and more sexually attractive to their partners (Williams et al., 2017).…”

Cultura y movilización social contra la violencia sexual a través de Twitter: el caso del fallo judicial "#LaManada" en España

“…El feminismo académico ha identificado la importancia de cómo se discute públicamente la violencia sexual y la necesidad de dar voz a aquellas mujeres que, precisamente por el trauma que RLCS, Revista Latina de Comunicación Social , 79, 237-262 [Investigación] DOI: 10.4185/RLCS-2021-1502| ISSN 1138-5820 | Año 2021 han sufrido, no pueden hablar de su experiencia. Además, las nuevas redes sociales brindan una nueva forma de generar una "conversación social" (Armstrong & Mahone, 2017;Mendes, Keller & Ringrose, 2018;Fontenla, Rúas & Conde, 2020;Galletero, López & Martínez, 2020;Ruiz & Bustos, 2020), donde las mujeres pueden encontrar espacios anónimos seguros para compartir sus experiencias, al mismo tiempo que se tiene en cuenta que vivimos en sociedades donde existe una cultura de violación (Williams, Christopher & Sinski, 2017;Worsley et al, 2017;Stubbs-Richardson, Rader & Cosby, 2018) que también se difunde en las redes sociales.…”