Gwyneth: not every woman

Last week, I was aimlessly reading tweets when something caught my eye and my interest. This is not a direct quote but the tweet said something to the effect of “Gwyneth tells moms to lose weight, moms tell Gwyneth to shut up” or something similarly harsh. Curious beyond belief I clicked the link. I was directed to a website fittingly called The Stir and a piece scolding Gwyneth Paltrow regarding comments she had made about losing baby weight. Gwyneth had discussed with a UK writer
the trouble she had losing weight after the birth of her second child, Melon, I mean Moses. The Stir’s writers’ main gripe, and there were many, was in response to the quote below:
"Every woman can make time -- every woman -- and you can do it with your baby in the room," she said. "There have been countless times where I've worked out with my kids crawling around all over the place. You just make it work, and if it's important to you, it'll be important to them."

The source of the outrage stemmed primarily from the use of “every woman". On the attack, the writer detailed all the ways in which Gwyneth wasn’t like “every woman.” Everything from Gwyneth’s predisposition to thinness to her tiny and talented trainer was picked apart making a pretty good case for the fact that Gwyneth is indeed different from most of us. Surprised? Of course you’re not. Gwyneth is tall as a tree, comes from a Hollywood family, is married to a rock star, has unlimited funds at her disposal and could not be more different from “every woman” which is exactly why practically every woman reading The Stir or Huffington Post wanted to hear how she lost her baby weight. And perhaps I’m biased as someone who helps people lose baby weight for a living but most women, rich and poor do in fact care to lose baby weight.

I concur with the fact that every woman can make the time to eat well or exercise. Sure, it may be easier with a trainer and a chef but at the end of the day it comes down to determination and motivation whether you’re a celebrity mom or more like me. If money was the deciding factor Oprah would be waifish and I love Oprah but she’s shown us that wealth doesn’t necessarily govern weight.

I was firmly on team G. and though her words hadn’t been polished by a PR person, I understood her point of view. All women like to feel their best, have to make the time to make this happen and it takes work. I was fully with her until she said “losing baby weight was by far the hardest thing I’ve ever done.”Hard would’ve been acceptable, even grueling would’ve been OK but “hardest” coming from someone who lost her father way too soon? I’m handing over my team uniform. I’ll let you draw your own conclusions on this one but thought I'd leave you with something amusing. I read hundreds of comments after many articles on this subject and most reader’s joined the Gwyneth bashing bandwagon. Here is one particularly poetic response from The Huffington Post comments:

There was an old woman who lived in a shoe

She had so many children but she still worked out, too.

She gave them green smoothies without any bread;

Then gave them a laxative and put them to bed.

What do you make of this baby weight brouhaha? Does G. need to get off her soapbox or does she have a point?