The 'Peach Test' that has divided the internet.

Listen to this story being read by Laura Jackel, here.

Mary Catherine Starr is an artist, mother and yoga teacher. She has built a following of over 225,000 people on Instagram through comic-book style illustrations that depict married life and motherhood. 

Last week however, Starr began receiving abuse and death threats after some of her comics found a new audience on Twitter. 

In a post titled 'A Message To My Community', Starr shared an official statement to describe how the last few days had been.  

"As you may or may not have seen, late last week some of my comics were picked up on Twitter, taken out of context, and used as the fuel to begin a campaign against me," she wrote on Instagram.

"What began as hundreds of 'get a divorce' comments has now devolved into scary threats, images of me killing myself, release of my private information, and online harassment towards me and my husband on all of our platforms."

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Mary Catherine Starr (@momlife_comics)

To understand exactly what happened, let's begin with Starr's back story. 

Who is Mary Catherine Starr and what are the 'Mom Life' comics?

According to her own website bio, Starr started blogging in 2009 about, 'Adventures in leading an active and yogic lifestyle, pursuing my entrepreneurial passions, navigating adulthood, and making as much time as possible to enjoy the simple things in life.'

Six years ago, Starr became a mum while also growing her art and design business.

In 2021, she began sharing illustrations about her busy life as a mum as 'Momlife_Comics' on Instagram. On her first post in June she introduced herself, her husband Ben (who she admits is a 'great sport and often the subject of her comics') and their two young children, Charlie Mae and Teddy. 

Since the launch, she has been regularly posting pastel-coloured illustrations that highlight the ups and downs of motherhood, the challenges of being in a long-term relationship and the double standards faced by women. There are lots of relatable, lighthearted designs that touch on 'laundry mountains' and her love of coffee and as well as more poignant ones that shine a light on racism, sexism and mum guilt. 

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Mary Catherine Starr (@momlife_comics)

Many of her pretty illustrations have been widely shared on all corners of the internet and according to the Know Your Meme website, her most popular post to date from January 2022 depicts a dad buying fast food and being labelled as a 'fun dad', versus a mum labelled as a 'lazy mum'. 

The comments on her posts, until the last few weeks, are mostly positive, filled with cry laughing emojis and all from other women and mums in her community who relate to her content. 

So, what happened? And why is Starr getting death threats?

On July 13, 2022, Starr shared an illustration to highlight the difference between how she sees the 'last ripe peach' in the fruit bowl, compared to her husband. She prefers to save it for the kids and her husband puts it in his smoothie. 

The caption said that it was an old illustration from 2020 that her husband was well aware of. 

She added: "Happy peach season to everyone except my husband! And I know, we mums need to stop being martyrs but when it comes to fruit, I JUST CAN’T HELP IT - I HAVE TO SAVE IT FOR THEM. 

"Also is there anything more annoying than someone using fresh, ripe, seasonal fruit in a smoothie when you have frozen fruit that works just as well?"

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Mary Catherine Starr (@momlife_comics)

But a Twitter user took the illustration without her caption or community context and re-posted it, writing, "I wonder how many women secretly hate their husbands". 

I wonder how many women secretly hate their husbands pic.twitter.com/E7J3fFzBq5

— “Bad” Billy Pratt (@KILLTOPARTY) July 12, 2022

It was then picked up by another Twitter user, who shared multiple Momlife comics with a reply that read, "I for one promise to never make comments about how much I hate my spouse."

Starr's work went viral as many users began sharing and editing her original peach illustration, adding comments like: "Divorcing my husband because he has the audacity to eat the food in our house."

Initially, Starr responded by creating an 'eat the damn peach' illustration to highlight she was well aware of her own martyrdom. 

But the Twitter response to the 'peach husband' meme quickly went from observational humour about marriages to personal attacks and death threats.

Thousands of Momlife_Comics followers have added supportive comment's on Starr's statement, such as Joanna Goddard, fellow mum and founder of lifestyle website 'Cup of Jo'.

"It is very, very lonely to feel a certain way while assuming you’re the only one," Jo wrote on Instagram under Starr's post. 

"And your comics make us feel like a community! A life force! Not alone at all!!! And putting words to these feelings can help change minds and change ingrained patterns and change marriages and change lives. You do important work."

Writing for the Daily Dot, journalist Gavia Baker-Whitelaw believes that the intended audience is everything.

"Momlife presents a depressingly negative view of marriage and parenthood, which is why it went viral on both Twitter and Instagram. But the two audiences came at it from different angles."

Starr agrees, saying that her intention has always been to build a community of like-minded people on Instagram and that context is everything. 

"The community that we have built here is about making each other feel seen and less alone in the challenging parts of motherhood. I don’t go on and on about the amazing parts of being a wife and mother because among us mums, those are a given. OF COURSE we love our children (and our husbands) more than we could ever put into words. OF COURSE we wouldn’t trade our lives for anything in the world. And yet many of us also feel unsupported, unseen, and/or under-appreciated by our society and in some cases, our partners.

"Let’s refocus our attention on the importance of online communities like this one in making mothers feel supported, understood, heard, and seen. 

"Hopefully, this will also make it clear to anyone who visits this page that it is not about husband-bashing but about pointing out the mental load of motherhood and the unequal expectations for mums vs. dads in our culture."

Read more:

• LEIGH CAMPBELL: My best days are the ones my son is in daycare.
• Mia Freedman: 'Focus on your parenting wins, not fails' and my other golden rules for parenting.

Laura Jackel is Mamamia's Family Writer. For links to her articles and to see photos of her outfits and kids, follow her on Instagram and  TikTok.

Feature Image: Instagram @Momlife_Comics

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