For those who can't see the sign clearly, its an advertisement for a local Townsville gym, and the slogan of choice is "Baby Fat is Cute... On Babies"...
Now I'm not going to lie. This sign made me mad. Like real mad. This sign pissed me off. It must have been obvious because my husband looked over at me taking the photo and said "you aren't going to put that up on Facebook or something are you?"... Oh no... I'm going to go one better and write about it.
Firstly, who thinks up this shit?! Who is sitting in their little office in their size 10 big boy shorts and thinks to themselves "Ooh! That's what I will do today! I will try to not only degrade but embarrass the mothers who travel down XY road.. because that is sure to generate business!" I very much doubt that any women walked into Genesis Fitness (because that's right people I am naming your business here just in case people couldn't read it on the giant billboard!) and said "Hi, I'm Cathy; an overtired, overworked mother and can I just say I really thought it was HILARIOUS the way you submissively called me fat through your billboard. Sign me up!"
All sarcasm aside... (I know, but roll with me anyway)... Why did they do this? Do they really think there are mothers out there that think that the extra weight they gained during their pregnancy makes them more attractive. News Flash Genesis!! We know we gained weight! We know!! We might not be happy about it, but we are definitely not oblivious to the fact that some of our clothes no longer fit us the way they used to. There is NO need to point it out in such a nasty 17-year-old-teenage-girl-that-peaked-at-highschool kind of way. Embarrassing us isn't going to get us into the gym any faster, and it certainly isn't going to get us to YOUR gym any faster.
How about a positive sign? How about something that motivates us? How about a sign that acknowledges that we have gone through a massive, huge, very big deal life change recently which shows just how amazing and durable women can be? Something like "You just gave birth... You FUCKING ROCK! Wanna come work out with us?" (OK, clearly my advertising skills aren't up to speed.. but let's be honest, they are still a whole lot better than the nasty shit up above!)
I'm not going to pretend there aren't overweight mums out there. I'm not even going to pretend that there aren't people out there who sometimes need a good kick up their arse to get them moving... but a new mum is never one of those people. Never.
