Kourtney's New Instagram Sends The Wrong Message

After recently giving birth to her third child, Reign, Kourtney Kardashian posted a new Instagram celebrating losing baby weight. Since giving birth 3 months ago, Kardashian stated she now weighs 120 pounds, which she proved by Instagramming the scale: "First day that I have seen this number in a while," she captioned the photo. While it's good that Kardashian clearly feels confident in herself and her new weight, the obsession over post-baby weight loss sends the absolute wrong message to women — and, unfortunately, it's not the first time the Kardashians have gotten it all wrong when it comes to pregnancy and body image.

Sadly, media coverage of the Kardashians seem to assume that women's happiness and health is linked to their appearance, as if losing baby weight rapidly after giving birth is somehow indicative of being successful at motherhood (this is, of course, not the case). It's an unhealthy standard to set for women, and the Kardashians have sadly perpetuated this in the past through their own social media accounts, complaining about their weight gains, discussing their diets, and celebrating their weight loss. However, so much of this seems linked to their brand, as is evidenced by Kris Jenner's horrific message for Khloé in which she told her daughter she needed to pull her weight by losing weight in order to remain true to the Kardashian brand. In short, the Kardashian brand is "skinny." Khloé, complaining about her mom's message, also mentioned that Kris has been telling her to have a baby.

So much micromanagement, down to the pound.

Kourtney's recent post isn't the first time that she and the rest of the Kardashians have celebrated, in a problematic fashion, losing baby weight quickly after pregnancy. Here are some other times they've used social media to highlight their baby weight, or lack thereof.

Motivation

Not only is Kourtney using an image of herself from years ago, but she mentions that it was a year after Mason was born — thus celebrating her ability to lose baby weight to look good over health reasons.

What's To Blame?

Here, Kim says that she can't blame the baby weight. But, why would she have to blame anything?

The Belfie

The famous "belfie" that many thought was Kim presenting her post-baby weight loss was problematic for a few reasons — namely because it indicates Kim was setting an unrealistic standard for herself.

Setting Goals

Here's Kourtney complaining about the pounds she still needs to lose.

While running, and exercise in general, can be empowering, the obsession with returning to a pre-baby body seems stressful, damaging, and even dangerous. The Kardashians need to remember that while they might be a brand, the obsession with rapid post-baby weight loss is not only damaging to a female's body — it's damaging to the psyche as well.