Week 8: Ashley Graham is a "Pretty Big Deal"

When I first wake up, I often like to scroll through Instagram or Snapchat. Particularly, I will (almost obsessively) clear my stories and subscriptions on Snapchat, and when I am finished looking through those, I will browse the "For You" section on Snapchat's Discover. Discover is basically a bunch of pop-culture and current news articles that Snapchat thinks I will be interested in. On Tuesday, I was scrolling through, and I saw an article about Ashley Graham "breaking the internet" with her Instagram posts about her pregnancy and postpartum struggles. I think, after watching Baby Cobra and seeing the boundaries Ali Wong broke with her comedy special, I was intrigued to see more examples of this in media (Wong). Like we discussed in class Wednesday, women are becoming more and more comfortable with these topics, as they should be, and I am thankful that we now have role models with platforms who share this important part of their lives. In this blog post, I would like to discuss Ashley Graham's posts further and reference the articles I read on Snapchat about her sharing her pregnancy and postpartum life with us. 

Just like how Jesse David Fox mentioned how Wong "humanize[d] motherhood" with Baby Cobra, Ashley Graham is also normalizing this subject with her Instagram posts. In one of the articles about an Instagram post of her pumping in an Uber, the author claims that Graham is "on a mission to help normalize breastfeeding" (Williams "Pumping in Uber"). Similarly, Graham writes in one of her captions, "No one talks about the recovery and healing (yes even the messy parts) new moms go through" (Graham). Perhaps even more telling, she states, "It's unbelievable the obstacles we still face talking about what women really go through," hitting the nail on the head about how shocking it is that society still does not promote this truth telling (Graham). Personally, I agree with the statements that Graham and Wong are making about society and conversations about pregnancy-related issues. We have progressed enough (at least I would like to think we have) as a society to be comfortable in discussing what truly goes on with women during pregnancy and the postpartum stage. Alas, we still fight to normalize these natural parts of life and are sadly shamed and looked at differently for it. 

For more information on Ashley Graham and the positive impact she is making on normalizing all aspects of motherhood, please check out her podcast, Pretty Big Deal (Williams "Breastfeeding"). She recently made a video introducing her son on her podcast, alongside her husband, Justin Ervin. Her Instagram page is a great source for material like this too!

Works Cited 

Fox, Jesse David. "Appreciating Ali Wong's Powerful Pregnancy Joke in Baby Cobra." Vulture, 9 May 2016, https://www.vulture.com/2016/05/ali-wongs-powerful-pregnancy-joke-in-baby-cobra.html. 

Graham, Ashley. "A S H L E Y G R A H A M." Instagram, https://www.instagram.com/ashleygraham/?hl=en. 

Williams, Valerie. "Ashley Graham Posts Video of Herself Pumping in an Uber." ScaryMommy, 27 Feb. 2020, https://www.scarymommy.com/ashley-graham-pumping-breastfeeding-uber-video/. 

Williams, Valerie. "Ashley Graham Shares Sweet Photo of Herself Breastfeeding Her Son." ScaryMommy, 5 Feb. 2020, https://www.scarymommy.com/ashley-graham-breastfeeding-photo-instagram/. 

Wong, Ali. Baby Cobra. 5 May 2016. 

The Importance in the Role of Motherhood

I recently watched a tik tok that made me experience a change of thought on the stereotypical roles of women (I am so sorry that I can’t link it here, but it’s somewhere out there in the world of tik tok). A girl was explaining how most people believe that the roles that women had centuries ago would be seen as basic or easy. Types of jobs she provided were sewing, cooking, or raising children; these jobs seemingly easy since they were tasks that could be accomplished without leaving your home. The girl then notes how difficult these jobs really are and more importantly, how essential they are to families or households. Having these kinds of skills is very difficult and requires lots of time and effort to become an expert. It is hard to imagine being the center of the household and having to make sure your family is fed three times a day or that they are provided with the essentials. The job that stood out to me the most was raising children to become adults. Life is already difficult enough having to make sure we are healthy and taken care of, let alone having to tend to numerous other humans at the same time. She gave a lot of strength to the idea of stay at home moms and the reality of what their duties call for.

            After watching this tik tok, it made me think of Michelle Obama being featured in the “2 Dope Queens” podcast. Not only is Michelle a mother of two daughters and a first lady of the United States, but she is also a person of color. The image that she must portray to the world of herself is crucial and almost every move she makes is shown to the world. Similarly to her husband, she must keep a certain composure while being in such an important position. This is even more important for a couple of color, as they can be seen as aggressive more easily than somebody who isn’t. Around 23:50, she is asked if she holds the same standards to her daughters, Sasha and Malia. She states “I don’t want, at this young age, to stifle them… I want to fan their flame.” In response to Jessica and Phoebe’s question. I had never thought about how Michelle was to mother her children as a public black female and what messages she decided to give to her young daughters. Her role as a mother seems even more critical in the development of her daughters and shows just how important being a parent is, especially while being so public.