Actress Bryce Dallas Howard, who made a Hollywood name for herself in movies like Twilight: Eclipse and The Village, recently had a lovely baby girl. Mazel tov! But while most people tend to fawn over new mothers and their offspring, TMZ reacted in a more controversial fashion: pointing out her baby weight gain. On Mother’s Day. Ouch.
TMZ tactfully decided to feature Bryce’s photos last Sunday (the perfect time to remind moms of pregnancy weight gain) in a post entitled “It Takes a Village.” Because she was in The Village! And now they’re implying she’s the size of a village! Get it? While the gossip site technically didn’t criticize Bryce (it only mentions her “post-pregnancy legs”), posting the photos for an audience used to starlets dropping baby weight in two weeks opened up a verbal slaughter in the comments. Here are some of the gems:
Newborns sleep all the time so stop the laziness and junk food. 4 months is plenty of time to loose the baby weight.”“DAMN!!! Most of these actress’ work to lose the load pretty fast. She seems to be playing “universe”. “She’s ever expanding… Sorry Bryce, but you have cowed out, BIG TIME! Those thighs could feed a village of cannibals for a few weeks!”
“The article may say Bryce Dallas Howard on it, but all I’m seeing are photos of Hugh Jass.”
Those hurt to read, especially since Bryce is more of a physical representation of new moms than most women we see in Hollywood. Thankfully, a number of commenters on sites like Jezebel and xoJane are showing support for her post-baby body. One commenter wrote, “I LOVE this picture of Bryce. It makes me feel normal,” which seems to be the general sentiment on the boards. While some meanies on the Internet may be hell-bent on making women feel bad about their figures, it’s nice to know there are body-positive arenas, too.
What do you think of TMZ’s post? What about commenter reactions?
Image source
sunflower / 310 posts
TMZ is perpetually trashy, so while this is similarly so, it’s also not surprising.
We’re conditioned to assume that celebrities are pretty much superhuman. Able to lose massive amounts of weight, even after having a baby, in spans of time we cannot fathom. Which is why this is probably so shocking. But really, Bryce is just a human woman. Should she be held to such unreasonable standards? No. Will she? Yes.
Is four months an unreasonable amount of time within which to lose the weight? No, it’s not, plain and simple. But it’s her body, and despite the fact that she’s a celebrity (which apparently makes us entitled to nitpick and make decisions for her), it’s 100% up to her what she does with it.
I just hope that if she sees this, she takes to heart that she’s actually making many women out there feel better, and that the only people downing on her are the ones insecure themselves.
daffodil / 1615 posts
ugh people are the worst
guest
Absolutely disgusting. TMZ should be ashamed of themselves. As if being the mother to a newborn isn’t hard enough, Bryce doesn’t need such negative media tormenting her…
Not cool.
guest
Are you fucking kidding me? What she does with her body is none of anyone’s damn business. So what if she hasn’t lost weight? Jesus, some people really need a chair to the face…
guest
aw that picture is precious
guest
Jerks.
guest
Some people need some sensitivity training! I know celebrities are held to a different standard and the tabloids love showing off the women who lost practically all their baby weight in a matter of weeks, but she’s a human like the rest of us. She’s not the first, nor will she be the last woman to take a while to lose pregnancy weight. It is her body, she should and will do what she will, none of our business. The TMZ commenters are horrible! Mothers have a lot on their plate, regardless of their income, especially at the beginning of their child’s life. The mom is busy tending to her baby, probably not eating or exercising properly or resting adequately, all of which can hinder weight loss.
guest
*sigh* Some people have super unrealistic expectations of stars (& of people in general, really). Those people need a sympathetic pat on the head.. with a hammer.
guest
I was completely fascinated by her in The Help.
guest
People need to worry about their own damn buisnesses.. Who cares if someone gained weight from a baby or not?.. Geez…. So what, she has baby fat?. Maybe she has better things to do than lose the weight right away. BTW, I have no clue who this is either
orchid / 184 posts
TMZ is terrible. She’s human she just gave birth to human and she should tell everyone to screw off. SMH
guest
Seriously, this is disgusting. Leave her the fuck alone.
guest
Aw, that’s mean.
guest
She looks better then I did after I had my son and she’s up and walking around GO Bryce! There are plenty of post pregnancy celebs out there that show the weight gain they just chose her to pick on. Who knows what other things in her life she has going on! Judgement is cruel.
orchid / 149 posts
Is that photo really 4 months after giving birth? Her stomach still looks big from the baby, not big from being fat.
guest
Yeh, yeh, who cares about other people and their fat? I don’t care if she chooses to let herself go, but I still have thoughts on her appearance.
Looks like she has a lot more than just baby weight still on her. She was tiny to begin with and I don’t think she gained that much while pregnant – every part of her has expanded like a bubble. Having that appearance makes her seem lazy. 4 months is a very long time to get the weight off and keep it off, especially with having to take care of a baby.
guest
TMZ is a bunch of permanently adolescent bullies.
guest
lol I remember quite a bit that when Snooki said she wouldn’t get like Jessica a majority of you said that she was right that it is scary that she ballooned up and regardless of her being pregnant there is no excuse for her to eat whatever she wanted. Yet, TMZ are the bullies hmmm…. *pondering* *pondering* I am not being a troll I am just reminding to those, you know who you are that had the same type of reaction as TMZ does, Don’t be a hypocrite.