admin
“I go to the gym occasionally, but I also drink heavily on the weekends and enjoy eating eight slices of pizza at a time.” That’s how 19-year-old Mackenzie Pearson explains “dad bod.” It’s a man’s body says he’s not perfect, but he’s also not a slob. This, apparently, makes him sexy. He’s more accessible and has the potential to make the woman by his side look better by comparison.
In just a few words, Pearson has given a now-viral stamp of approval to exactly how women will never, ever find acceptance from others for a similarly imperfect body type. It’s not for a lack of trying. Following the “dad bod” trend has been the inevitable “mom bod” response. Although, really, who are we kidding? Showing a woman’s stretch marks and post-baby pooch is what women show other women to tell each other that we are worthy of self-love. Then we flip through the pages of Us Weekly and see celebrities in bikinis—and the only way a muffin top is on display is if it’s in a feature article about body fails.
However, turn to the next page for a glimpse of A-listers, including Leonardo DiCaprio and Vince Vaughn, who will be unironically labeled as hunks despite looking a minimum of 5-months pregnant.
Not all media outlets and brands put models like Gisele and her fat-free figure above all else, of course. Rebel Wilson is being applauded for coming out with a plus-size clothing line. Dove keeps trying to push more acceptance on a wider range of women’s bodies (although it doesn’t take a brain surgeon to see that their definition of variety is actually frighteningly limited). Sports Illustrated allowed a plus-size bathing suit line to advertise in its annual swimsuit issue (even if it was probably hard for them to deposit the check). But these examples make news because for the most part, they are so few and far, between having Victoria’s Secret Angels shoving their cleavage in our faces and Lululemon telling us our thighs aren’t welcome in their pants.
The fact is that women have an expiration date (as Amy Schumer so perfectly pointed out here) that is far, far sooner than those stamped on men. Double standards for men and women are nothing new, although the “dad bod vs. mom bod” one seems to sting just a wee bit more. We struggle forever for change and acceptance, only to have men waltz in and bask in being told we love them, they’re perfect, don’t ever change. Ouch.
Pointedly putting dad bods on a pedestal and giving them a prize while mom bods sit next to them on a pedestal as a form of punishment and public shaming is beyond insult to injury. And yet for better (dad bod) or worse (mom bod), you can take it to the bank that discussion of both will be around for a long time to come.
