beauty

"Did I miss something? Where is the mum in this photo?"

There’s something missing in this photo, and it’s making me very angry.

Bellies with stretch marks spread across them. Boobs that have been weighed down by an adorable baby feeding on them. “Wobbly” thighs.

These are usually the body concerns that mums have. And these are the bodies that seem to be always left out of advertising campaigns.

Usually I don’t care when it comes to models in glossy cover shoots or billboards. I know how heavily photo-shop is used. But when a campaign promotes REAL women, with REAL bodies, and they still aren’t really that REAL, I get a little cranky.

Before I go any further, you need some background. Victoria’s Secret did a campaign for their “Perfect ‘Body'” campaign for their new Body bra. This is what it looked like:

Via Victoria's Secret.

While all very beautiful, and I am sure they work out very very hard for bodies like that, they all are very slim, very toned with very long legs. And people were not happy with the perfect body tag line.

Which is why UK fashion retailer JD Williams did this:

Via JD Williams.

With the hashtag #PerfectlyImperfect. After which, Victoria's Secret altered the line to "A body for every body." Interesting, isn't it?

The women in the JD Williams ad are BEAUTIFUL. And yes, they seem a little bit more curvy than the Victoria's Secret women. But they are still toned. They all have pretty flat tummies.

And that's when it hit me. I didn't care about the Victoria's Secret photo. I cared when a retailer was showing real women...but left someone out. It seems mums have lost out in the war of acceptable bodies for advertising. Sure, all of the models, from both campaigns, could be mums.

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But none of them have the bodies that some mums have. The bodies that I hear mums complaining about all the time. Whether it is the mums in the office, or from our lovely (and BEAUTIFUL) readers.

The stretch marks on their bellies after keeping a baby safe for 9 months. Boobs that have said, "gravity, you win," after a year (or more, or less) of breastfeeding. Bums that never quite look as toned and perky as the time they had time to go the gym 5 days a week.

And campaigns that promote REAL women, like the JD Williams one, give an impression that if you don't look like those REAL women, then your body is definitely not normal. I'm sure JD Williams had the best of intentions. They even put a call out for women to share their body flaws to be the imperfect perfect.

And one mum responded:

But this is my question: Shouldn't there have been at least one mum with tiger stripes in that photo? Or one mum-to-be with a huge pregnant belly? Why do mums, with all their beautiful "flaws" get left out?

Click through the gallery to see images of women who have embraced their post-baby body. Images courtesy of instagram.com/loveyourlines. Send your photos to loveyourlines@gmail.com.

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