Yesterday another of Matt's (I feel like I should be on a first name basis with him since he is my new blog-crush and all) posts popped up in my newsfeed. It was accompanied by a picture that I had seen before. In fact, I posted another blog post regarding the photo on SMR's FB page the day before. It's the now pretty famous photo of fitness blogger Maria Kang.
I was surprised to see so much controversy surrounding this photo once again. I first saw the photo several months ago. It was amidst controversy then too. Now it's being drug through the cyber mud again??? Seriously people, move on. Washington alone is giving us plenty of material to troll through and scoff at. But, last time I checked which was yesterday, Matt's post had over 450 comments.
The thing that bothers me most is just how negative and nasty people are toward Maria Kang. As though she personally, herself, committed some terrible terrible crime against them. When in fact, all she did was post a photo of herself showing that her hard work paid off even after giving birth to 3 children who were all 3 years and under at the time of the photo. Oh, and by the way, she posted the photo ON HER OWN FITNESS PAGE. You know, where she promotes health and fitness and Facebook users have the option of following her page... or not.
If they did take a moment to check out her FB page and see what she's all about, they might realize she's a pretty neat person. She is very down to earth and even talks about having stretch marks. One of my favorite things I saw on her page is a picture of her sleeping through a morning workout with her 3 boys snuggled up with her. Oh, I can so relate to that one! Who wants to go workout when there are little ones to cuddle with?!?!
This goes deeper and hits on so many levels. Most of the nasty comments were from women. That is really sad. Woman on woman bashing is old and tired. Enough already. Many people even claimed that is was the statement of "What's Your Excuse?" that was offensive and set them off.
Below are a series of photos. All serving to send out the same message. Guess which one is the only one to receive THOUSANDS of negative comments to the point that it has made national news.
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| Does this offend you? |
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| How about this one? |
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| Surely this one is offensive. It even has the exact same statement. |
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| How about now? |
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| Does this offend you? |
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| How about this one? |
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| Offensive? Yes, no? |
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| How about now? |
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| Getting my point? |
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| Add caption |
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| He's being totally offensive here, right? |
Are you picking up on a common theme here?
I'll be clear. The theme here is not "You are lazy, fat, ugly, and/or less than all of us."
The theme is this: In spite of difficult circumstances, whatever they may be, do not choose to throw in the towel and give up. You too can overcome your own personal obstacles and reach your goals.
Don't give up. Period.
Stop reading into things because of your own insecurities. You are enough. Once you start believing that, you will probably make some pretty awesome things happen for yourself.
No more excuses.
Peace, Love, Happiness!
~Bekah
It really makes me sad to hear about women bashing women, why can't we just be happy for each other?? We have so many other things we should be complaining about, I don't get it! Carri~A Running bee
ReplyDeleteI agree, and I loved the pic of the two men at the gym:)
ReplyDeleteI agree, I took from it that out of tough situations, you still need to push. I didnt find it offensive at all.
ReplyDeleteMy guess is that when people see the other "what's your excuse" images they say "yeah! totally! If I had no legs, I wouldn't let that hold me back!" but when they were confronted with Maria's image they had a different reaction BECAUSE they were in the exact same place. It's so easy to support something that feels removed from you - like bodybuilding with no arms - but when confronted with a real situation that replicates your situation - I'm guessing women take offense because it's a heck of a lot easier to bash her than to get moving and make a difference. I feel for Maria - she doesn't deserve any of this backlash. She should be an inspiration not a rally cry for others to bash.
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