Determined to find new ways to stay in the headlines, the underwear brand Victoria’s Secret recently had the model Jasmine Tookes – one of its most longstanding “angels” – open its runway show nine months pregnant. As a postpartum woman myself, my first thought, of course, was: “Finally! A pregnant woman I can relate to.” Only joking: it was a deep concern for her ankles, followed by a wish that one day the modelling industry will solve its recruitment crisis, because surely short-staffing is the only justifiable reason for wanting a heavily pregnant woman to work.
Nonetheless, body image and pregnancy have been on my mind recently. It is a curious thing, giving birth. We are all here because someone did it, yet what happens to women, mentally and physically, remains less known than, say, Liz Truss losing to a lettuce. And even though those of us who have given birth know intellectually that what we have done is miraculous and we should be proud, we still struggle with what it does to our physiques.
Perhaps seeing more pregnant and postpartum bodies in the media could be a net gain for womankind. I’d have hoped, though, that by now we would have learned that we need more than just images of hot mums – glamorous, rich, thin women whose pregnancies appear to be just convenient little bumps, rather than metamorphoses that seem to affect every single organ and limb. Hasn’t this been done to death? I’m just saying: Demi Moore did a nude pregnant photoshoot in 1991, OK?
Still, I am the fool if I am expecting Victoria’s Secret, or any union-busting clothing brand, to be “right on”. When it comes to brands trying to promote themselves with images of empowerment, perhaps we should remember the words of Homer Simpson: “Hey! Just because I don’t care, doesn’t mean I don’t understand.”
Coco Khan is a freelance writer and co-host of the politics podcast Pod Save the UK
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