Shame on fat shaming, Radar Online! The internet tabloid body-shamed Janet Jackson for pregnancy weight loss fail barely five weeks after giving birth. The new mother had baby Eissa al-Mana on Jan. 3 and by Feb. 6 the celebrity gossip website was already tsk-tsking her still "bulky" body. The site quoted a doctor who speculated that the "Rhythm Nation" singer was "doomed to be fat forever."
Janet Jackson's manufactured weight crisis?
The website poked fun at Janet Jackson for her 80-lb pregnancy weight gain. There was no substantiative evidence of her actual baby weight gain, just vague predictions.
The Jackson 5 sister had taken to wearing bulky clothing. Early in pregnancy she was rumored to be carrying twins and gaining faster than usual. Beyonce is expecting twins and showed a growing baby bump. But at 50, Jackson's pregnancy was already risky. From that, the website painted a picture of a morbidly obese mother-to-be destined for perpetual obesity. But, Jackson and husband Wissam al-Mana welcomed baby Eissa al-Mana, who, by all accounts, is healthy.
Janet Jackson body-shaming backfires
Body love is in fashion, especially big body love, and body shaming of any size is very uncool right now. Just ask Lady GaGa who converted a ton of new fans with her Super Bowl halftime performance and classy handling of belly fat-shamers afterward.
Actually, small women are body-shamed as much (or more) than thicker women. Many preach overweight body positivity at the expense of underweight folk. Plus-sized celebrities espouse their curves and criticize "anorexic," "stick-thin" women, though an eating disorder may have nothing to do with their body size.
Why Janet Jackson may not have lost weight
Radar Online said Jackson looked like she hadn't lost any weight in a month, which shows not only faulty knowledge of pregnancy but also weight loss. A woman only loses about 10 pounds in childbirth. Some lose nothing or even gain weight with extra breast milk. The body takes several months to adjust after pregnancy.
The uterus will shrink back to normal more quickly with breastfeeding. If you're nursing you're eating more, too. By the six-month check-up, if Janet Jackson only lost 12 or so pounds, she'd be right on target. But the timeline differs for everyone.
Is rapid postpartum weight loss healthy?
The big body love movement is in part a reaction to pregnancy weight shaming. Many Celebrities like reality TV's Jenelle Evans from "Teen Mom 2" boast super-fast pregnancy weight loss. That said, losing weight too quickly is no healthier than keeping it on too long. A healthy pregnancy adds 25-30 pounds, but many women put on more. If it took 40 weeks to gain it, it may take about that long to lose it. After birth, the usual rules of weight loss apply -- slow and steady is better than fast and sporadic.
