E! Took Post-Baby Obsession Too Far Reporting Carrie Underwood Wore a Size 2/4 Dress
Carrie Underwood in Thomas Wylde. Photo: Getty Images
Carrie Underwood made a triumphant return to the red carpet on Wednesday at the 2015 CMT Music Awards. She posed for pictures in a little white dress embellished with silver hardware and then hit the stage in a black Jani & Khosla gown to perform her hit “Little Toy Guns.” She also won awards in every category in which she was nominated including Video of the Year, Female Video of the Year, and Collaborative Video of the Year, making her the most honored artist in the show’s history. But what’s more important, at least according to the Internet, is that just three-months after giving birth to son Isiah, she’s already got her “pre-baby body back.” And while those words are now commonplace in headlines, E! took thier obsession with the singer’s trim appearance to an inappropriate level when it went so far as to report what dress size she wore.
Saying Underwood has an “unbelievable post-baby body” as the New York Post did, that she “showed off killer post-baby bod” in the words of USA Today, or that the 32-year-old stunned “on the Red Carpet — 3 Months After Giving Birth!” is unfortunately expected at this point, given society’s obsession with women slimming down in record time after housing a human for nine months.
“Before, during and after pregnancy, mothers receive countless messages that tell them that their bodies need to reflect their pre-baby appearance,” body image expert Dr. Robyn Silverman tells Yahoo Style. “Mothers are directly or indirectly told that this standard should be achieved almost immediately following the birth of a child and without fail, by the time that child is 1-year-old.”
But to ask about her specific dress size seems intrusive and a bit boorish.
And what if Underwood hadn’t lost the baby weight so quickly and was wearing a size 6/8? Would the same editorial decision be made to publicize the labels on her dresses. Would the headlines instead celebrate her accomplishments and awards? Probably not.
Reaction to this invasive fact finding might be tame, if only because readers have become immune to this type of body talk. Plenty of celebrities have proudly flaunted their size and weight. When Zoe Saldana appeared on the cover of Allure with the tagline "115 pounds of grit and heartache" and controversy followed, she defended the magazine’s decision. "I think it would have been wrong if they were lying about my weight,“ she said on the Today show. "This is how much I weigh. It’s something I can’t control. It’s who am.” Katy Perry told Elle she’s 130 pounds; Jessica Simpson, spokesperson for Weight Watchers, has been vocal about her body, which has been “all kinds of sizes”; and Kourtney Kardashian shared an image of a scale reading 120 pounds on Instagram. “First day that I have seen this number in a while,” she captioned the post. But those who share their weight only do so when they’re proud of the number on the scale.
It’s unfortunate that while celebrities like Kelly Clarkson, Pink, and Selena Gomez are attempting to send messages of body acceptance, the perpetuation of a single norm still exists. It’s still a headline that someone looks amazing months after giving birth, or that Melissa McCarthy lost weight for a role, or Jonah Hill packed on a few, when these people are doing dozens of other awesome things we could discuss. Forget unfortunate, it’s actually mind-blowing.
More from Yahoo Style:
Is It Time for "Fashion Police” to Call It Quits?
Why I’m Dreading Kim Kardashian’s Second Pregnancy
Lauren Conrad Bans the Word “Skinny” From Her Website
