Kim Kardashian doesn’t do a celebrity pregnancy.
Instead of looking like a tiny woman who has swallowed a basketball, Kardashian looks, well, look a normal pregnant woman.
This is why the paparazzi and the gossip magazines are obsessed with her whenever she’s pregnant. She breaks the mold and flips our expectations of what a pregnant celebrity should look like.
Celebrity Doctor, Anne Helen Petersen, believes we hold pregnant celebrities up to impossible standards.
And she’s dedicated a whole chapter of her book – Too Fat, Too Slutty, Too Loud – to the subject.
LISTEN: Anne Helen Petersen explains what a celebrity body is expected to look like. Post continues after audio…
“Kim Kardashian would have loved to have had the cute pregnancy – which is when you swallow a basketball,” she explained to Mia Freedman on this week’s episode of No Filter.
“Or it looks like you’ve swallowed a basketball.”
Petersen says those unrealistic standards continue after birth, with celebrities expected to bounce back to their pre-baby body immediately.
“And then you give birth to a baby and then it looks like that basketball is gone,” she said.
However, as Petersen explains not even celebs can live up to this level of ridiculousness.
“And she [Kardashian] had internalised the idea that was the kind of pregnancy she could achieve if, you know, she had planned right,” Petersen explained. “But, you know, bodies don’t listen to plans.”
Petersen decided to include the chapter in the book so we can start having more frank and honest discussions about what a pregnant body really looks like and how women really feel when they’re pregnant.
LISTEN: Mia Freedman chats to Anne Helen Petersen about her book Too Fat, Too Slutty, Too Loud. Post continues after audio…
“There’s a lot of discussion about how pregnancy is so beautiful,” she explained. “But there’s not a lot of discussion around that a lot of people hate pregnancy or don’t feel cute at all.”
Petersen believes some women feel very alienated from their bodies when they’re pregnant, but they internalise those feelings because that’s not the way we’re taught to talk about pregnant bodies.
You can listen to Mia’s full chat with Anne Helen Petersen on the latest episode of No Filter.
Top Comments
I don’t get why women who don’t gain 30 kilos in pregnancy are categorised as abnormal. It’s frustrating to me when women who get covered in stretch marks and end up with the massive saggy belly and gain so much weight are put on a pedestal and called heroes and praised for being proud of their “real Mum bodies”. Should I be ashamed for not getting stretch marks and only gaining 12 kilos and because my body goes back to normal within a few months of my babies being born?? Why am I being forced to feel abnormal and despised because my body does this? Believe it or not some women gain the recommended healthy amount of weight and exercise and eat healthy and don’t end up with really dramatic post partum bodies. We are still normal and have “real” Mum bodies. Sick of it!!!!!
Ah, the humble brag.
You don't 'get it'? You don't get that these women may need a little emotional boost? For women struggling to re-gain even a little bit of self esteem, kind words like the ones you're 'sick of' hearing may help to make them feel a little bit better about themselves. You know what I'm sick of? People like you. People who have gotten so used to being seen as special they they don't want to share that feeling with those who are struggling. "Why is the ugly nerd getting lauded for being clever and smart - I'M the prom queen god damn it!" How about empathising with those who have not been as fortunate as you and counting yourself as lucky? Building other people up shouldn't make you feel like you're being brought down. The ultimate goal is to make us all meet somewhere in the middle where every type of outcome is considered normal and okay.