Maria Kang is a mother of three and fitness junkie. She’s also now the center of an Internet firestorm because she posted a photo on Facebook of herself in two-piece workout gear, her small children and the caption “What’s your excuse?” Some are calling it an inspiration while others are saying she’s shaming other women who are still struggling with their baby weight. Two days after posting the photo, it’s been shared almost 16,000 times.
The Sacramento mother of three is a business owner involved with local charities. She was also a personal trainer in her college days and has since gone on to develop the Belly Ball workout, which sort of undermines her argument that she’s a regular person. As Morgan from the mom blogThe Inklings of Life responded, “All real moms don’t look like you, sweetheart.” She went goes on to say that her photo is both irresponsible and harmful:
“You, as a woman, should be ashamed that you are furthering the downward spiral of how society views women, and how we women view ourselves. You, as a recovering bulimic, should understand that your picture is more propaganda added to supporting an unreasonable idea of what women should look like, which not only causes eating disorders in women, but gives young women, yet to become mothers, false hope of what motherhood will be and look like for them.”
On her Facebook page, Kang gave a defensive non-apology to Morgan and moms who agree with her:
“I’m sorry you took an image and resonated with it in such a negative way. I won’t go into details that I struggled with my genetics, had an eating disorder, work full time owning two business’, have no nanny, am not naturally skinny and do not work as a personal trainer. I won’t even mention how I didn’t give into cravings for ice cream, french fries or chocolate while pregnant or use my growing belly as an excuse to be inactive.
What I WILL say is this. What you interpret is not MY fault. It’s Yours. The first step in owning your life, your body and your destiny is to OWN the thoughts that come out of your own head. I didn’t create them. You created them. So if you want to continue ‘hating’ this image, get used to hating many other things for the rest of your life. You can either blame, complain or obtain a new level of thought by challenging the negative words that come out of your own brain.
With that said, obesity and those who struggle with health-related diseases is literally a ‘bigger’ issue than this photo. Maybe it’s time we stop tip-toeing around people’s feelings and get to the point. So What’s Your Excuse?
What do you think about “the hot Facebook mom” and her message?
