Post-birth bodies to be celebrated at body positivity event

Fresh from filming Channel 4’s Naked Beach, influencer-mum Molly Forbes is embarking on a body positivity campaign to change the way women consider their place in society, especially after giving birth, and abolishing diet culture.

Her next event is Body Cons Body Love at The Forge with her Body Cons podcast partner Lottie Story.  Molly chose Bristol for this event not just because The Forge is “gorgeous” but because both women also have their roots in the city, growing up and working locally.

Believing in the importance of creating a space for mums to discuss post-partum bodies, the Body Cons Body Love event provides the opportunity for ten mothers (plus one female guest each) to enjoy a full day of activities, including talks, workshops and a live podcast recording of Body Cons. There will also tasteful nude photo shoot in which Molly hopes to create “an intimate, empowering space” where mothers take their time to feel comfortable.

Molly advocates after giving birth a woman should not lose her identity. Speaking about her personal journey to motherhood, she recounts starting her blog to “find her voice again”.  After becoming a mum, Molly describes how her life “totally changed from being in a busy exciting office to just sitting at home.”

Despite finding the transition to becoming a full-time mum difficult, she found solace online and felt inspired to create her well-known blog Mother’s Always Right. She describes how during pregnancy there are “goddesses like Beyoncé” and after birth, mothers are expected to ‘shrink back’ to their pre-birth body. Initially posting about the trials and tribulations of motherhood, Molly ventured into writing about body image in summer 2018.

It’s through social media that Molly and Lottie met, after mixing in the same online circles.  The aim of the Body Cons podcast, which they went on to start together, is for a “diverse range of voices and activists to feed into the mainstream”.

Molly says that many listeners are still dieting and going to weight loss groups so need gentle encouragement to denounce those principles rather than seeing it as a radical idea.  She’s incredibly proud of the project and its audience, and rightly so. New mother’s listen, teenagers listen and Guide leaders encourage their Guide units to listen as well. The body positivity movement’s popularity on social media shows the public are ready for a change in culture.

What ultimately sets Molly apart is her drive to change body ideals and dieting culture so her children won’t be dealing with the same issues. Having been “such a sucker” for  diet trends in the past, it wasn’t until she became a mother she wanted to encourage change.

“When my five-year-old started getting interested in why I was ‘eating something different to the rest’, why mummy ‘wouldn’t wear a bikini at the beach’ or why I ‘wouldn’t let daddy take a photo of us in the pool’, I started working on it. I’m passionate about being a role model. It’s okay to be happy with your body.  We’re allowed to feel that we’re enough.”

Molly Forbes recently took part in Channel 4’s Naked Beach

In order to change current perceptions of body image, Molly believes the conversation needs to move into public domain. She says that body image needs to be discussed from primary school as negative ideas have already set in by the time children reach the secondary school PSHE lessons. More significantly, she says that society needs a “multi-layered approach to change where we discus body image.

“It’s a narrow idea of constantly comparing ourselves and looking at this specific body and saying ‘this is the best. Thin is beautiful’.  To change toxic values we need to have more conversations. Face to face. It’s about talking to friends, to children and just actively talking about it.”

Molly says that, even in 2019, “there’s still so much missing” from the body image discussion. Body Cons Body Love is a first step to encourage more conversation.

Tickets are available for Body Cons Body Love event on the Saturday, May 18 at www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/body-cons-podcast-body-love

Main photo courtesy of Mother’s Always Right

Read more: Bristol mum is part of a new body positive show