It started out making sense: Khloé Kardashian posted a few prenatal workouts—good on her for staying healthy while pregnant, right? Then, Khloé commented that she was “so freaked out” that her belly button would “pop” from an innie to an outie during pregnancy. This phenomenon, while totally normal, is a little weird to think about. I’m pregnant too, and I have an innie I’d prefer didn’t pop, so I kind of got it—I wouldn’t publicly declare that I was “so freaked out,” but I can see it being something you’d wonder about.
But then. Then our friend Khloé Kardashian, six months pregnant, posted an Instagram photo on Thursday, with the caption “Body, I miss you”. The photo was of herself, pre-pregnancy, wearing a skin-tight body suit. And now I’m officially annoyed.
Look, I get it—bodies are part of the Kardashian brand, and Khloé’s has always been a source of anxiety and, frankly, fame, for the star. Her family has said some gross, problematic stuff about it. Her E! show, which is literally called Revenge Body, is predicated on the idea that she used to have an “undesirable” figure and now she has a good one. (The show of course is pretty fat-shame-y, but that’s another story).
But given that a significant chunk of Khloé’s time in the national consciousness has been spent talking how much she wants a baby, you’d think she’d (at least publicly) cut herself a little more slack for, you know, gestating a human and changing shape a little. Telling your pre-pregnancy body “I miss you” sends a signal to pregnant women (and observers of pregnant women) that our bodies are not desirable in their current state. Which isn’t a message we should be broadcasting to anyone, ever—pregnant or not.
I can relate to feeling less than amazing about my pregnant body—it’s not that I blame her for feeling that way. In fact, whenever I’m feeling less than glamorous in my pregnant state, I remind myself that four pounds* of my weight gain is just *blood— what’s happening to us as pregnant women isn’t really something we have control over. And that’s kind of what makes it cool. Everyone who’s ever birthed a baby has gone through this. We have to be nice to ourselves. At the very least, we should be nice to ourselves on social media, so that other women don’t get the idea that there’s anything “wrong” with a pregnant person’s shape.
Plus, Khloé’s followers keep commenting that she shouldn’t worry, she’ll “get her body back” in no time, which is proof this kind of talk really has an impact. But that should not be their response. Maybe she will, maybe she won’t. This is her body right now and it looks amazing. Oh, and it’s making a freaking baby. And that should be celebrated just as much as how she looked before that happened.