Maria Kang’s latest “No More Excuses” picture proves she has gone soft.
When she shared the first (in)famous picture of herself tight and toned with her three little kids on her Facebook page in 2012 — and boatloads of women muttered, “She’s shaming us into feeling bad about ourselves!” — I disagreed. I think we all have excuses for why we’re not taking better care of ourselves, and mothers tend to point to their kids rather than to themselves. Some of us projected those feelings onto the young, fit mom who threw a no-holds-barred image in our faces.
Then the Internet attacked her, it got ugly, and she cleverly used her time in the spotlight to get her fitness book made.
Now she has an early copy of that book in her hot little hands, and released a new image to help promote it:
Aarrrrrrgh.
If only she had stopped being defensive and simply OWNED her message like last time!
Now it seems she feels the need to point out her “flaws” in the graphic, going so far as to awkwardly bend over to the side to physically smoosh up her own skin to appear fleshier…to be more relatable to us unfit shmucks, maybe? (I’m too busy shaking my head at that patronizing move to come up with better reasons why.)
I understand why she points out she is a “mom of 3” and works full time, but still makes time to train. That’s all good. No excuses! She’s busy, just like the rest of us!
Then she starts talking about how people said she was a bad mom, etc., etc., and ends with “take that.”
“Take that”?
She had an opportunity to stand firm in her belief that we need to stop making excuses, but what she ended up doing was attempt a Neener neener neeeenerrrr in the face of people who bullied her online.
This photo isn’t to help inspire all the people who could use the motivation to take better care of themselves. This photo is defending herself (I have physical flaws, too!), reminding people that her last attempt at this kind of photo did not go over well (Feel bad for me!), and then pointing out that she’s charitable with her work (I created free workout groups so the meanies didn’t make ME mean!), SO TAKE THAT, BAD GUYS.
If I were her PR person, I’d tell her to skip the patronizing lean, own that she’s a hard-working businesswoman, and once again show people that they have the choice to stop making excuses with maybe a bullet list of responsibilities in her life rather than complaints that are lame (faux loose skin) and whiny (Internet trolls were mean).
The photos on her Facebook wall are a sea of evidence that she’s a doting mom, loving wife, and dedicated fitness expert, living the No More Excuses life. Why she chose to market herself in this one photo in a way that goes against all the hundreds of others that show the proof in the pudding is beyond me.
You really went soft this time, Maria, instead of sticking to those amazing guns of yours. What’s your excuse?
Photo: Getty
